If I say the words corn detasseling, you probably do not think glamorous job - and you'd be right. It is hot. It is dirty. It is also a summer job that pays well for many teenagers in the Midwest.

In order to prevent pollen from drifting from conventional corn to the seed corn, farmers will plant their seed corn in large fields surrounded by soybean fields. They also tend to grow seed corn in ...

Two of our three daughters, and my wife as a high schooler, engaged in the infamous corn country summer employment that thousands of teenagers have participated here in the Midwest: Detasseling.

Prior to the kids going into the fields, detasseling machines remove approximately 70 percent of the tassels. The kids clean up what the machines were unable to get. In detasseling, timing is ...

DEWEY, Ill. (AP) -- For migrant workers and teens on summer break, mid-July in central Illinois means one thing: corn detasseling. For a few weeks every summer, crews of workers trudge through wet and ...

Candice Fuson sails between rows of 6-foot corn plants, not pausing to wipe the mix of sweat and morning dew that drenches her face, long-sleeved windbreaker and gloved hands.The 15-year-old's ...

Seed companies looking to create hybrid corn use a labor force of mostly teens to manually detassle corn. A wet spring pushed back planting this year, so the teens may need to return to school. If I ...