In order to make enough money to buy a new car, Alesander Rodriguez has spent nearly every day of the past week in a cornfield.
He’s not a farmer, though.
Rodriguez, 16, of Beardstown, is one of many teens throughout Illinois and all across the Midwest working as a detasseler this summer. The job involves removing the top portion, or tassel, from female seed corn.
“It’s easy,” Rodriguez said of the job itself, though the hours and conditions often are not.
The purpose of detasseling is to prevent the female from self-pollinating so that an adjacent male seed corn of a different species can instead pollinate it and create a hybrid.
Detasseling is a first job for many central Illinois teens — and one whose lessons can extend beyond agriculture.
“You learn the value of the dollar and what it takes to get it,” Rodriguez said. “You learn how to work in a team, how not to give up.”
This is Rodriguez’s fourth year of detasseling. He works for Gable Detasseling, a company in Beardstown that does detasseling around the area for the seed company Monsanto.
What it takes
Olivia Gable’s first job was detasseling. She now works as an independent contractor for Monsanto and is co-owner of Gable Detasseling.
“I think an obvious incentive is to make money,” she said, “and I think we have a lot of underprivileged kids this summer who need to make their own money. And I think the fact that they’re willing to wake up at 6 a.m. to do it, that’s a really big thing.”
Alice Brinkmeier, a contract supervisor for Monsanto, added: “I feel like a lot of kids these days don’t know what hard work is. These kids aren’t like that. They know what it takes to earn their money.”
The young people working for Gable this summer range in age from 14 to 20. The minimum age is 13.
Anjali Julka, a spokeswoman for state Department of Labor, said the Illinois Child Labor Law “sets rules and regulations for children under the age of 16 who work.”
“It prohibits children from performing types of work that under the act are deemed dangerous or hazardous,” Julka said.
As related to detasseling, the law says: “No minor under 12 years of age, except members of the farmer’s own family who live with the farmer at his principal place of residence, at any time shall be employed, permitted or allowed to work in any gainful occupation in connection with agriculture, except that any minor of 10 years of age or more may be permitted to work in a gainful occupation in connection with agriculture during school vacations or outside of school hours.”
Eduardo Rios, a 17-year-old from Beardstown, plans to use the money he makes detasseling this summer to pursue a college education.
“Sometimes the job’s easy; sometimes it’s harder when the plants are high,” Rios said. When his boss walked by, he added, “And they treat you pretty good.”
Gable’s workers start out earning $8.30 per hour, 5 cents above the state’s minimum wage for workers older than 18 and 55 cents above the minimum for younger workers.
Aside from Monsanto, other seed corn companies participate in detasseling as well. Lace Sweet, a 13-year-old from Ashland, detassels for Pioneer.
Sweet said she wanted to take the job because she “was interested in the money.”
Teens and machines
Gable’s detasselers typically work eight-hour days in the field, usually seven days a week. Detasseling is done in four- to six-week-long seasons that typically start in early July and last until the beginning of August. The start date may not be announced until a couple of days beforehand.
Locally, detasseling began July 5.
David Scheffler, a site manager for Monsanto, said the silk in the female seed corn’s ear plays a large role in determining when the season will begin.
“Before the silk gets really low, we go through and cut the tops off, the leaves out, and half the tassel,” he said.
The majority of the work for detasseling is done by machine. A cutter goes through the fields first and cuts off half of the tassel. The field is allowed to sit for a day so that the tassels have time to grow. If the tassels are long enough by the third day, a machine called a puller will come through and remove those tassels. The machines do anywhere from 80 percent to 90 percent of the detasseling themselves.
The rest is left up to the workers.
During harvest season, Monsanto picks up the corn for packaging and processing.
“This is really a good job for a 14- to 16-year-old,” Scheffler said, “especially when they can’t really get a job anywhere else.”
Who does the hiring?
Each season, contractors look for workers to be part of their crews for the duration of the four- to six-week detasseling season. Contractors take workers from different areas, depending on where the seed corn fields are.
Wibben Detasseling is based out of Emden. The only requirement is that workers be at least 13 when they join.
“There’s a big difference between being 13 to 14 and being 12 to 13,” said Cale Wibben, an independent contractor for Monsanto. “Attention span, body structure, everything grows leaps and bounds in those six months.”
Wibben posts information on his website, wibbendetasseling.com, near the end of April or the beginning of May. Each week in June, Wibben goes to all of his pickup locations to help potential workers fill out applications.
In accordance with Illinois law, workers younger than 18 are paid $7.75 per hour, and those 18 and older get $8.25. A $100 bonus is given for perfect attendance, while a $50 bonus is given if no more than two days are missed.
Wibben takes workers from Lincoln, Tremont, Mackinaw, Greenview, Harstburg, Middletown, New Holland, Pekin, Mason City and Athens.
Each season is different, so Wibben recommends checking back to his website periodically.
Gable Detasseling is based in Beardstown. Workers must live within a 25-mile radius of that area, be 13 years old, and be prepared for the physical labor detasseling entails. Potential workers can contact Olivia Gable at firstname.lastname@example.org, and she will respond with an application. Gable recommends contacting her in May. Typically, 45 workers are on her crew.
Pay starts at $8.30 per hour.
Detasselers for Burrus Seed need to have federal I-9 forms, be at least 13 years old, and have birth certificates to certify that they are U.S. citizens. Burrus is based in Arenzville and accepts workers from that area.
However, Tom Burrus, the company’s president, added that potential detasselers from the Springfield area are welcome as well, though they would have to drive to one of the pickup sites within the 25-mile radius.
Workers are taken to the fields each morning on a bus. Each day lasts from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Burrus recommends applying for a position between April and May. The company accepts applications until June 20 and starts hiring July 1.
Pay starts at $7.75 for the detasseler’s first year and increases with each subsequent year.
Contact A. Marie Ball through the metro desk: 788-1517.