I Believe in Field Work by Shane Sloup

I believe in field work. Some people may laugh when I say that, as they view summer as a time for relaxation and swimming. For me, about half my summer is spent working in the fields and field work is the first thing that I think of when summer enters my mind. It is extremely hard work but the money made in the amount of time is exceptional. I believe in field work.

Sometime in early to mid-June, we start volunteering. Once again, volunteering may sound different to your ears. We don't give away our work and time for a certain cause. Volunteering is the term for removing corn plants that grow in between the planted rows. These corn plants are called volunteers, hence the name volunteering. Early in the morning our crew leaves the parking lot at Seward High School for the designated fields that day. Armed with shovels, each person is responsible for the row he or she is walking down as well as two or three more rows on each side. At this time of year the corn is very short, usually less than a foot high, so it is easy to see into the rows next to you. Some fields have more volunteers than others, with notorious clumps littered throughout the field. Clumps are large amounts of volunteers growing from an ear of corn that was left in the field from the previous year.

Late June marks the end of volunteering and the beginning of rogueing. During the rogueing season it is our job to remove rogues from the field. A rogue is an individual corn plant that is more mature than the other plants around it. Because of this, they will begin to pollinate the surrounding plants too early and result in a poor hybrid. Bean hooks are used to remove rogues and have a long handle with a curved blade at the end. To take out a rogue, the worker places the blade at the bottom of the stalk and slices it off. The rogue then falls to the ground where it will not be able to cause early pollination. Like volunteering, each individual is responsible for more than one row. The corn is much higher then it was during volunteering, about waist to chest high, but rogues can be identified very easily and because of this the worker can walk down a row and take six rows of plants to each side. This allows our crew of around 30 to get through fields very quickly with each person cleaning 24 rows each round.

Soon after the 4th of July celebration it is time to start detasseling. Detasseling, the epitome of summer field work, involves the removing of tassels from all the female plants in the field in order to get the correct hybrid. The days start an hour earlier than they did for rogueing and volunteering. Sometimes we get to the first field and it is too dark to start working. The crew starts on one end of the field and gradually moves to the other side. Each worker takes one row up and comes back on the next row. We call each trip up and back a round. Usually I can get somewhere between 15-18 rounds in a field, and at about seven dollars a row, that's quite a lot of money. In order to pass a field we need to remove 99.7% of all the female tassels. It usually takes our crew 2 or 3 times through a field to pass it.

I believe in field work. Through all the hard work and heat it can be fun. The camaraderie between the workers is very strong and we have more fun then most people think. When things get tough it's easier to just laugh it off and keep going about our work. After the season is over it feels kind of weird not waking up at 4 in the morning ready to go and make some money. I believe in field work.