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Gazette, The (Cedar Rapids­Iowa City, IA)
Detasseling
The Gazette
Published: July 30, 2007
DYSART ­ Wet. Hot. Sticky. Bugs. Money. Corn. Detasseler Sam Graf rattles off words that pop into his head when
he thinks of his temporary summer job.
Snakes?
"I haven't seen a snake, ever. I don't see any animals, just bugs," said Graf, 15, of Vinton, as he swats his way
through dense rows of stalks nearly as tall as his 5­foot 11­inch frame.
It's the morning of July 20, and Graf is on his 12th day of the season, as part of a detasseling cleanup crew near
Dysart.
Two machines have already gone through the cornfield, shaving off most of the tassels from the tallest plants. It's
the job of the human detasselers to pull the 25 percent to 30 percent of tassels ­ that fringy part of the leafy stalks
that pokes up in the middle ­ from the female corn plants in designated rows.
Thirty or so kids are in the field, all doing the same thing as Graf. He has intentionally lagged behind on a dirt road
that splits a seemingly endless field of corn.
The rich brown ­ almost black ­ soil at the edge of the field is littered with dozens of colorful half­gallon and gallon
insulated drink coolers, many labeled in permanent marker with the thirsty owner's first name. It's a relatively cool
day, temps reach only into the mid­70s. A gentle breeze rustles the corn leaves. The ground is wet, but not too
muddy.
Darn near perfect weather for detasseling.
Among detasselers, commenting on the weather is a preoccupation. Hours are spent among tall rows of corn ­ that
for some reason don't seem to provide any shade ­ during what are usually the hottest, most humid weeks of the
summer. Most detasselers dress less for the weather than they do to protect from cuts made by sharp corn leaves,
or, worse yet, corn rash.
That's something a person can get from the inside of the leaf, Graf says, pulling down a long leaf and laying it flat in
his hand to demonstrate what he means.
"It's not something that's fun to have. Some people don't get it, but I'm one that does," he says.
So, he opts for double long­sleeved layers on top, thick jeans and old, "really old shoes, bad socks," he says.
Up top, he wears a faded­by­design Pioneer ball cap, a thick layer of sunscreen over his already peeling nose and a
bright­orange bandanna tied around his neck.
He wears big plastic safety glasses, pulls on dirty work gloves. A
IOWA LIFE, PAGE 4B
Iowa Life/Work is rewarded
FROM PAGE 1B

2. new pair is free weekly if he wears them out, but losing a good pair will cost him $1 to replace.
A recent storm provides an interesting obstacle: downed, but not yet dead, corn stalks messing up neatly planted
rows typically easy to navigate.
His row is marked by a dirty, light­blue bandanna. It's his job to walk all the way to the end, then turn around and
come down another row. He gets to work even before he fully enters the row. Snap, snap, snap. Graf reaches and
breaks off tassels missed by the machines. He tosses tassels to the ground. No need to think about hurting the
plants as he pushes, tramples and pulls because there are hundreds of thousands of them.
The corn swish, swish, swishes, against the slick wind­resistant material of his outer shirt. Otherwise, it's quiet away
from his crew. No music, no traffic, no birds.
"You get a lot of time to think," Graf says.
Usually, it's a sociable job. He walks with someone working a row or so over, and they talk the whole time, no matter
who it is.
"There's people who don't talk at all at school. You get them out in the cornfield, and they talk a lot," Graf says.
What do they talk about? That depends.
"Sometimes we sing. Not good, but we sing," Graf says. "Sometimes we make up our own songs."
Last summer was his first detasseling, really, his first job ever, other than mowing lawns.
He's in it for the money, no doubt.
Pay starts at $6.20 a hour, but he's hoping by working hard every day of the season he'll make $8 to $8.50, maybe
even $9. At 100 to 120 hours for the season, that will add up to a nice check. He's got plans for his hard­earned
money.
"Gas money or maybe a laptop," he says.
The job is dirty, a little stinky and far from glamorous, but getting a group of teen boys and girls together, romance is
bound to happen.
"There's always one or two (romances) every year," Graf says.
Detasseling is not as bad as he thought it would be, as detailed by two brothers, a sister and his mother, who
detasseled after the family's 1997 move to Iowa from Yuma, Ariz.
Working fast, Graf soon catches up to his group of eight to 10 teens, headed by an crew leader, Lindsey Schmidt,
17, of Vinton, who has four years of experience. That's the job Graf wants next summer: It pays more.
As Graf reaches his crew, Schmidt shows him his row. The chatter becomes louder and more understandable.
What's acceptable as far as language depends on the crew leader. Most don't approve of profanity, "but it happens,"
Graf says.
It's also against the rules to corn dive, that is, get low in the corn and sneak up on a fellow crew member. That
occasionally happens, too.
Soon, the crew will break for lunch. Working eight hours or a little longer means this day's shift will end at 4 or 4:30
p.m.
Even early in the day, the detasselers are covered with mud, bugs and bits of tassel. Graf's mom won't let him in the
house with his mud­caked shoes and nasty socks.
Graf claims he tosses his detasseling outfit into the laundry every night. But at the end of the season, he'll likely
honor a detasseling tradition.
"I might have a burning party with my entire outfit," he says.

3. ­ Contact the writer: (319) 398­8318 or dorothy.desouzaguedes@gazettecommunications.com
ON THE NET: For video of Sam Graf at work, go to www.GazetteOnline.com
Sam Graf
Age: 15
Address: Vinton
Occupation: Seasonal corn detasseler
Education: Sophomore at Union High School, La Porte City
Family: Dad, mom, stepdad, two half brothers, two half sisters, four stepbrothers, four stepsisters. "I'm dead last. I'm
the only one at home."
What is detasseling?
­­Cornfields are planted in rows of alternating male and female plants of different types of corn. Male rows are
marked with a tag, and every single female tassel needs to be pulled.
­­The goal is cross­pollination from the males to create a hybrid.
­­Pulling tassels of female corn plants prevents them from self­pollinating. The nearby males pollinate the detasseled
females.
­­Twenty years ago, walking crews pulled every tassel from the right rows.
­­Now, machine cutters cut off the top few inches of the plants to expose the tassel. A day or two later, a wheel
puller machine goes through and pulls up 70 percent to 75 percent of tassels on designated rows.
­­Human crews, mostly teens, clean up what the wheel puller misses. Sometimes they stand on a platform pulled by
a machine that hovers over the corn. In other fields, particularly when the ground is too wet, crews walk the fields
and pull tassels.
­­The detasseling season lasts two to three weeks.
­­The minimum age for detasselers in Iowa is 14. Pay varies but is often higher than minimum wage. Those who
show up every day and have a positive attitude earn incentives.
­­Pioneer hired 3,000 to 4,500 people to detassel its Iowa fields this year. Across the nation, the company hires
about 30,000.
­­Crew leaders hire their own crews, usually teens. Leased buses pick up kids near their homes and drive them to
the fields.
Source: Allison Larson, Pioneer Supply Management, Johnston.
COLOR PHOTOS
Jim Slosiarek photos/ The Gazette
Copyright (c) 2007, Gazette Communications, Inc.