On a warm July morning, three busloads of young people ranging in age from 14 to 25 roll through flashing yellow traffic lights before dawn in Kearney.

It’s necessary to get ahead of the blistering summer sun. For the next four to eight hours, these workers will carry out a summer job long considered a rite of passage for young Nebraskans: Corn detasseling.

For decades, this intense work has been a summer staple for thousands of kids growing up in rural Nebraska. Because it’s a short three-to-four week gig, detasseling has typically attracted high schoolers or college students looking to earn some quick cash.

But this rite of passage has begun to wane in recent years.

Fewer young Nebraskans are detasseling as more migrant workers pick up the work, according to data collected under a Nebraska law that was passed in 2024 to help document the shift. One ag researcher says labor market trends show young people increasingly eyeing jobs in retail or food service where they can earn comparable pay for easier work.

“We’ve just had a shift in the community since 2020,” said Shannon Sand, an associate extension educator with the University of Nebraska’s Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “You can make $17 an hour working at McDonald's.”

Brian Hagan, owner of Hagan Detasseling in Buffalo County, has seen this trend play out firsthand. As soon as his busloads of young workers arrive at the fields, they unload and immediately head to the corn rows. They work hard and fast to cover as much acreage as they can with fewer workers.

“We used to do 2,500 acres when we had 180 kids,” Hagan said. “Now we're doing 1,000 (acres) just because of the shrinkage of numbers.”

Today, Hagan Detasseling is down to about 75 hands. Fredrick Harbols, 20, is one of them. He sets down a large water jug at the start of his row, then gets to work. He moves at an intense pace, extending his arms on each side and plucking stringy tassels from the tops of corn stalks as he moves.

His gloved fingers easily identify a tassel, before ripping the v-shaped corn stalk and throwing it to the ground. It happens in less than a second.

“The first time you go through it, you're not going to get every tassel,” Harbols said. “You may think you are, but you're not going to.”

Harbols has been at this for years. He picked up the summer job for the first time at 13 years old as a way to make some extra money.

“It is like the perfect summertime job, in my opinion,” Harbols said. “I had four older siblings that all did it, so I kind of knew about it growing up. I just got in line and followed my siblings.”

A Fading Tradition

The need for detasseling arose in the 1940s, when Nebraska farmers discovered they could get better yields from their seed corn through hybridization. By selectively breeding corn stalks to weed out the undesirable traits, farms can produce at least 20% more corn on 25% fewer acres than in 1930, according to the USDA.

That requires keeping the hybrid corn pure. For decades, producers have employed teenagers from nearby towns to pull corn tassels in the summer before cross pollination happens.

Drey Sanchez has been detasseling for 11 years, since he was 14 years old, doing the work that he finds rewarding but hard. Now he’s in his final year of college and is ready to get out. 

“I use this money to live off of throughout the year,” Sanchez said. “It really works out for me as a college student. … It's quick. It's good money.”

In the field, the workers are required to cover nearly every inch of their body, from long pants and shirts to gloves and hats with netting that protect the face. Some wear bandanas around their necks and trashbag ponchos over their clothes to keep out the morning dew.

“There's been many times where I wish I could take a break, but I won't let myself,” Sanchez said. “I could easily take breaks, but I choose not to.”

A bit of competition runs among the detasselers to see who can cover the most acreage in a given day. Their pay varies based on their experience and amount of acreage covered. 

Hagan Detasseling starts at $100 an acre. For returning workers, that’s bumped to $105 an acre. Anyone who has worked four seasons or more will earn $110 an acre.

In 2025, Sanchez says he made over $5,000 for about three weeks of work.

“It was a really good year,” he said.

Some young Nebraskans are still getting into detasseling. Braden Swartz, 15, signed up to work with the Hagans for the first time this season. He recently moved to Kearney from Grand Island and says his mom encouraged him to take up detasseling – a family tradition – as a way to save money and meet new people.

Swartz expects to take home just under $1,000 this season, enough to start saving for his first car.

“I don’t have to do this job, but I want to do it,” he said.

‘Harder To Hire People’

Hagan, the company owner, said the steady pay and less demanding work offered by chain restaurants and retail stores is drawing young people away from detasseling. He’s been in the business for more than 20 years, since he and his wife acquired Gardner Detasseling in 2003.

When he got his start in the business, Hagan said he was one of three detasseling contractors in the Kearney area. Each company would hire nearly 200 young people to work the fields. There was so much interest from locals, each company had its own waitlist for applicants they couldn’t afford to hire.

Now, Hagan said, his is the last detasseling business in Buffalo County. Hagan said he attributes the shift to Nebraska’s rising minimum wage, which has incrementally increased from $9 to $15 an hour since 2023.

“It's hard work, you have to get up early, and you're out here walking the mud,” Hagan said. “It’s getting harder and harder to hire people.”

Sand, who researches ag labor in the state, said there is a shrinking pool of young Nebraskans who are willing to work farm jobs.

“You have a lot of people that just do not want to do hard labor, which is fair,” Sand said. “But the labor still has to be done.”

In 2024, the Nebraska Legislature passed a law in response to the labor trend that requires producers to report how many acres of their corn were detasseled by local workers and how many were worked by migrant laborers. 

The first report was released in September 2024, indicating that slightly more acres of corn in the state were detasseled by locals than migrants.

Hagan said he expects his crew will be slightly smaller next year and the year after that. He expects to reduce the amount of acres he detassels accordingly.

Sanchez recognizes it has become more work.

“It is probably more work than what it used to be,” he said. “This is probably my last year. I’ve done it enough.”

This story was originally published by Flatwater Free Press, an independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories in Nebraska that matter. Read the article at: https://flatwaterfreepress.org/its-hard-work-nebraskas-corn-detasseling-tradition-is-quietly-fading/