Yolanda Bailey (Fox Run Farms) Interview
April 2, 2026
DATE OF INTERVIEW:
INTERVIEW ID:
PV-NE-GROW-04
YEARS EXPERIENCE:
19
STATE:
Nebraska
ROLE:
Grower
CULTIVARS:
Brianna, Marquette
At Fox Run Farms http://www.foxrunfarmsne.com/ in Brainard, Nebraska, Yolanda Bailey manages a diverse agricultural operation that has been in her family for over 125 years. The farm’s history dates back to 1900, when Yolanda’s great-grandparents, Joe and Fannie Hroch, first purchased the land. Today, the acreage is home to four generations of the family, including Yolanda and her husband Larry, who moved to the farm from Philadelphia in 1981. The farm transitioned from a conventional livestock and crop operation to its current focus on specialty crops, fruit, and unique family-led ventures.
The farm’s vineyard, which earned its name from the families of foxes found living nearby, was established in 2007. While Yolanda initially experimented with both red and white varieties, she eventually shifted her focus to the hardy Brianna grape after finding it more resilient to the local climate and diseases than other cultivars. Beyond the vineyard, Fox Run Farms features an Asian pear orchard, various apple varieties such as Fuji and Gala, and a wide array of seasonal produce including sweet corn, watermelons, and pumpkins. The farm also hosts "Bailey’s Bubbles," a family-run business creating handcrafted bubble solutions and wands that add a whimsical element to their seasonal U-Pick events and farm store.
Tyler Bertsch: How did you get started with growing grapes?
Yolanda Bailey: Larry and I had children in college and a couple of them moved home. We had this little pasture where we no longer kept cows and I decided that if the kids were going to live here, we needed work for them. We decided to plant a vineyard and took three years to research it. At first, we thought we were going to make our own wine, so we took a winemaking class. Within two hours, we decided we were not going to make wine. We eventually found a grape buyer in Central City.
When I was researching varieties, I took a class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) with Paul Read. I chose two varieties, Brianna for our white grape and Marquette for our red grape. We planted 400 Marquette and 300 Brianna on about an acre and a half. During our first year of harvest, the Marquette was doing well, but we eventually had issues with black rot. After several years, the Marquette began to die off during the winter. You can see here that the Briannas, which are about 20 years old, are still here and doing great.
Tyler Bertsch: What kind of soil do you have? It looks loamy.
Yolanda Bailey: It is loamy, with some clay underneath.
Tyler Bertsch: The reason I ask is that Marquette tends to struggle in very loamy soil in the heat from what I’ve seen, but I can’t verify that just yeat. The heat damages the vines in the summer and the winter takes them out. Marquette is also not very disease-resistant.
Yolanda Bailey: We had a winemaker coming out here to do tests on the Marquette to determine when to harvest. Traditionally, the Marquette would overripen before it reached the numbers he wanted. Since the Marquette didn’t work out, we are replacing them with apples, peaches, and table grapes. The Marquette just weren’t as hardy as we had hoped.
Tyler Bertsch: What year did you first plant the Brianna and Marquette?
Yolanda Bailey: 2007. They will be 20 years old in a couple of years. We realized that being a fruit farmer is very difficult. We also tried a large-scale vegetable operation, but it was a lot of work and didn’t make much money. On a small acreage, a specialty crop is really the only avenue you have.
We eventually decided that we didn’t even want to pick the grapes ourselves anymore. When we were selling to a winemaker, he only wanted a certain amount, and we would have to pick them on his schedule. We would have pick-your-own grape parties with our kids' college friends, but that was also a lot of work. Now, we have a free grape-picking harvest every year and we sell other items to make up the difference.
Tyler Bertsch: It looks like you’re using a Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP) trellis system.
Yolanda Bailey: Yes, we have catch wires on both sides that go up to the top. This trellis has removable clips so that when it’s time to tuck the vines, we can remove the clips and move the wires. It’s a good way of managing growth.
Tyler Bertsch: How consistent has the ripening been for the Brianna?
Yolanda Bailey: They usually ripen around August 14. We had a late frost on May 14 one year while they were flowering. They produced a secondary crop that year that was about half of our usual yield.
Tyler Bertsch: From the interviews I’ve done, Brianna seems to be the most drought-resistant grape.
Yolanda Bailey: I agree. One year, we had a bad drought, and we had to resurrect our irrigation system. We have a feeder hose that goes under the vines, and we were able to save them.
Tyler Bertsch: Do you use any herbicide under the vines?
Yolanda Bailey: Sometimes we do, and other times we don’t. It depends on the year. We had a graduate student from UNL, Christina Bouvignon, who did a study on the ground cover under the grape canopy. On the longest rows, she planted clover, and we also used recycled glass.
Tyler Bertsch: Did the recycled glass help with weed suppression or ripening?
Yolanda Bailey: We had hoped the glass would reflect light and help with ripening, but there was too much shading from the canopy. The weeds also eventually grew over the glass, so you have to constantly clean it and add more. To do it right, you would need the glass to be about a foot deep. I was going to buy a recycled glass machine from Europe for $2000. You put your bottles in and they are crushed into glass mulch.
Tyler Bertsch: Do you have a fungicide regular spray program?
Yolanda Bailey: We had a regular spray program for the grapes at first, but we realized we didn’t like spraying. We are going to have to start spraying again for the apples, though.
Tyler Bertsch: Which fungal diseases were the worst for the Brianna?
Yolanda Bailey: We didn't have many issues with Brianna. The Marquette, on the other hand, had black rot on the leaves and the clusters. We also had issues with uneven pollination on the Marquette. After a while, I decided that if the Marquette didn’t want to grow here, I was going to take it out. We eventually used a chainsaw to cut the Marquette vines out.
Tyler Bertsch: Do you have any issues with birds or raccoons?
Yolanda Bailey: We have an electric fence around the vineyard for the raccoons. The birds liked the Marquette and we had to use nets, but they don’t seem to like the Brianna. I think it’s because they stay green. Once you can start smelling the pineapple scent on the Brianna, that’s when the bugs start moving in. We used to use nets for the Brianna, but we don’t anymore. We even made a custom netting machine that was a trailer with a large bag on it that we pulled behind the tractor.
Tyler Bertsch: Do you make any jelly or juice from the Brianna?
Yolanda Bailey: We have made jelly in the past. It makes great juice, and we bought a large juicing machine last year that we are going to use for the grapes and the apples.
Tyler Bertsch: I wonder if you could graft some table grape scions onto the Brianna rootstock.
Yolanda Bailey: I've never tried that, but it would be interesting to see how it works.