The Detassel Heat Hassle

The Detassel Heat Hassle
By Timothy Rempel, Fairbury, NE (The Blazer)

    Samuel Netherton is an incoming junior at Fairbury Jr.-Sr. High School. Since he is not involved in many summer activities, he has plenty of free time. This past summer Netherto decided to do something with his time. He chose to work in the corn fields detasseling the stalks.

    Detasseling is when one takes the top part of the corn stalk off. The top part of the stalk is called the tassel, it produces the pollen used for reproducing. The reason why farmers detassel is because early in the 20th century farmers found out that planting two different types corn, generally, more corn is produced. The tassels are taken off because farmers only want to cross breed certain rows of stalks, according to TeamCorn.com, a detasseling recruitment website.

    In Netherton’s detasseling group there was only about 20 people. And the heat did not help the participation of other teens. “The heat slowed down my work pace so it did slightly affect my pay,” Netherton said.

    On a normal day, Netherton said “We would work anywhere from seven to nine hours out in the hot sun.” On average the detasselers made a $96 a day; some days a little less, others a little more, it all depended on how many fields were done. In total Netherton said he earned around $1,000 working in the fields this summer.

    On those shifts Netherton said he took breaks in between the completed fields, which were anywhere from five to thirty minutes long. There was one benefit to the excess heat however, he said, everyone got more water.

    While Netherton may joke around about the heat wave, it is very serious business. CNN has reported many heat related deaths of farmers and other outdoors workers in and around the Midwest region. In many major cities like Chicago, Raleigh, and others the temperatures were expected to rise above 100 degrees fahrenheit for most of the summer.

    Tera Ward, a nurse at Beatrice Dialysis Center in Beatrice, said, “Exposure to excessive heat might cause heat stress, (an general term for heat related problems) heat exhaustion, heat stroke, heat rash, or heat cramps. Some of these can result in serious injury, and even death.”

    Of course, like most other medical problems, heat stress has symptoms. Heat exhaustion’s symptoms are: dizziness, headaches, weakness, cramps, nausea, and increased heart rate. Heat stroke causes convulsions and fainting. A person suffering of heat rash may see little red bumps or blisters on their person. And one with heat cramps can expect muscle spasms.

    According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the ones more at risk are infants, and the elderly (65 or older). Also workers that work in hot environments like firefighters, construction workers, miners, etc. are at risk for heat stress.
    Since Netherton and his coworkers are all teenagers, they are all prime candidates for the job. And fortunately nobody got hurt Netherton said. However, being young does not make a person immune to heat stress, even younger people should be wary.

    “The feeling I get after finishing my final field for the day was great,” Netherton said. “It meant no more hard work out in the hot weather.” Which would indeed be a great reward, considering that most of the times he was working when the temperature was mid- to high-90s and sometimes even in the hundreds.

    “A couple times it got to be so hot the boss let us leave early,” Netherton said.