Memories from detassling corn

With corn harvest in full-swing I was thinking back to the summer of 1989 when seed corn detasseling was done in this area. That is kind of a foreign thing in this part of the state but it did take place once summer in 1989.

School was just about out for the summer months and I happened to be in the office when two men came in the high school and wanted to see if there would be any staff member who might be interested in helping with seed corn detasseling. They wanted a teacher or staff member who would be familiar with the students as students would be hired to be the workers in the field. I was curious so I asked what all the job required as I might be interested. They said I would be driving a bus load of students to the field and work along side of them pulling tassels from the corn. I was always looking for a summer job each year that the school was out for the summer break for three months.

The men came to my house and explained how things were going to work and how to get a crew together. They advertised with the students at the school and got the word out before summer break so students could sign-up and to get all their paperwork done. Students from age 10 on up through senior high were hired. I think we got between 45 to 55 students that were interested. The kids were told they would earn $4.00 an hour. I would be paid $60.00 a day. That was the going rate back in 1989. My daughters, ages, 12 and 14, were some of the workers.

There were going to be eleven circles of corn to be worked, the majority were ownd by Shawn Turner. The fields were planted with special seeds in a specialized way. There were two rows of male corn and six rows of female corn.

A business from Hastings Nebraska, called S & J Detasseling, were the ones running everything. It was owned by Stan Sheets and Julie Bohlen. They brought out two large Laid Law Company 60 passenger school buses that they rented from the Omaha Schools to transport the kids to the fields.

After the corn barely started to grow there was one stage that had to be worked called roguing. When the seed corn is planted, some of the seeds, a very low percentage, are undesired. The undesired corn plants are called rogue corn. Rougers are the workers who chop or dig out the undesired corn. What’s the problem with rogue corn? If the rogue corn is allowed to mature, it will contaminate (pollinate) the hybrid corn. Roguers are taught how to identify the undesired corn. Each worker is given a hoe handle with a sharp hook on the end, then they walk the field and when they see a plant that is undesired they catch the hook around the stem and pull back and cut it off. Only about 15 kids were needed for this process. With getting rid of the undesired corn the result is a superior breed of corn that has genetic characteristics of both the pollinating and detasseled corn plant.

The actual detasseling started in late July. That is when all of the kids were needed to come to work. When the time is right the detasselers have to work quickly. The workers needed to beat the heat so work stated in early morning and ended about 1pm before the humidity got to high in the fields. The kids were to bring a good amount of water to drink with them.

I was the bus driver. I would drive to Madrid and pick up kids about 5am and the rest of the kids met in Grant to be picked up to ride the bus and head to the fields. I remember one morning when I was driving through Madrid and baby skunk ran across the street and I hit it. Oh, how the kids complained.

Stan or Julie (the business owners) would ride along and directed to which field we were to do that day. After instructions from them we lined up the kids. Three students to each of the six rows of female corn and so on down the field. Each student was responsible for two rows of corn. The rows were easy to spot as the female corn grew shorter than the male corn. They demonstrated how to pull the tassels straight up and then drop them on the ground and not to break them off or throw the tassels in the air. If the tassels landed on leaves that could cause a problem with the pollination.

The actual detasseling lasted 17 days, non-stop. We would work from 5:30am to about 1:00pm before it got so hot and the humidity levels went up. Some of the kids were faster workers than others-depending on their size and age. I would walk cross the field back -and -forth checking on the workers, if the older kids got done at the end of their 6 rows I would make them go backwards and meet up with the young kids so we could all finish the field in good time.

It was a lot of walking and sore fingers, some of the kids would wrap masking tape on their fingers as the leaves were sharp.

The corn fields in this area did not grow as tall as they typically do around Hastings. There the corn was taller than the workers and special machines were brought in where the kids could ride in buckets above the corn to pull the tassels and not have to walk. This growing season in Perkins County in 1989 was cool and rainy and was not working out for taller growth.

I remember Derek Wilson was another adult who worked by checking to see if the kids were pulling the tassels just right so the end result would come out for a true hybrid seed.

During the seventeen day period the Perkins County Fair was going on. Several of the kids were in 4-H and had exhibits to get done. Some of the kids were in ball games. It was a busy time for all. Also, during that time my father passed away and during that same week my son, Mark Lagler and Carey Lowe were in Scottsbluff getting ready to play in the Western All Stars football game that weekend. So, we had dad’s funeral in Ogallala, then Dean’s parents took Becky and Katie back to Grant to be on the fair parade float and do 4-H stuff then Dean and I went up to Scottsbluff to the football game to watch Mark and Carey play. We got back home late, I and the girls were back in the corn field about 8am the next morning. One of the adult workers drove the bus that morning and picked up all the kids.

Another bus load of kids were hired from Ogallala during the thick of it. Stan drove them over. One of the adults from the detasseling company would get on top of the bus and stand to try to observe where everyone was and if the field were getting done right.

After all of the detasseling was finished the owners of the business said they would pay me $100 a bus to clean them out so the buses were clean and could be taken back to the Omaha School District. Oh, my land those buses a mess. I kids ate their lunches etc. on those buses during the working days and everything was ground into the floors and seats, but I got it done.

Since detasseling kind fizzled out here in Perkins County, they never tried it again. It was quite an experience for me and the kids.

While experiencing driving the bus I decided I kind of enjoyed it and then I went ahead and took school bus training and drove for the Grant school bus routes and some activities for 20 years. Some years were full-time, some part-time and some subbing.

I wish we all could have had cell phones back then it would have been so much easier to communicate and I could have taken pictures of the workers, etc. Most of the kids came out of the field a muddy mess at the end of each work-day. We were all quite a crew. I think the kids enjoyed it, I know they enjoyed the money anyway. In 1989 $4.00 an hour was a lot then. I enjoyed it also, a good experience and I was always looking for a summer job during the months school was out and this just sort of fell into my lap..