Seed corn production?

[Lazy WP]

I went past a couple fields where they had already chopped the male rows out. I know just enough about this to know what they were doing. Can someone explain what they are doing, why and maybe the entire process including pictures? Please 🙏 

[Sledgehammer]

I don’t have pictures but the corn plant can effectively reproduce itself. Tassel is male parts and silks are female. The de-tasseling and/or mowing of the male portion would be done to ensure that the other plants do not pollinate themself. The row or rows that are left are the desired male of the cross. In what I used to do, we spent this part of the summer pollinating things by hand on a smaller scale. 

[IH Forever]

Normally what is done around here is plant 4 female rows then 1 male row. The female rows are detasseled, the male flower, tassel, is removed. That leaves the pollen from the male row to pollinate the silk on the female rows. After pollination is complete the male row is destroyed so that you don’t harvest this row that is self pollinated.

I used to work at a corn production facility in the summers. Destroying male rows was a fun and pretty easy job. Just put the cutter down and go as fast as you could stay on the row.

[MTB98]

When I was a young teenager detasseling corn was the way to make some good spending money during the summer. I would work most of the summer for Asgrow/O’s Gold because they paid the best. They paid best because you walked. The Pioneer crew rode machines and were paid less. There were a few family owned  seed companies that I’d work for too. They all made you walk. 
Machines would run through the fields first and cut most of the tassels off the female rows between the male rows. We’d go behind the machines a few days later and pull missed tassels by hand. 
If you were a good detasseler (basically showed up to work every day) you’d be asked to be on the roguing team the following summer. Then you’d start working a few weeks before the tassels were coming on and cut out any plants that were “rogues” which were either too tall or too short. In a good summer a young teen could make >$1,000 which was far better than any other job you could get. Walking beans and baling hay didn’t pay nearly as well. The bad part was we had to be at the bus stop before sunrise and would sometimes be walking through knee deep mud in wet, dew covered corn until the heat of the afternoon. We’d stay out there in the rain and even lightning if it didn’t seem to be too close. 
Sledgehammer pretty well summed up the rest of it. It’s like breeding livestock except with plants. 

[IH Forever]

7 hours ago, MTB98 said:

When I was a young teenager detasseling corn was the way to make some good spending money during the summer. I would work most of the summer for Asgrow/O’s Gold because they paid the best. They paid best because you walked. The Pioneer crew rode machines and were paid less. There were a few family owned  seed companies that I’d work for too. They all made you walk. 
Machines would run through the fields first and cut most of the tassels off the female rows between the male rows. We’d go behind the machines a few days later and pull missed tassels by hand. 
If you were a good detasseler (basically showed up to work every day) you’d be asked to be on the roguing team the following summer. Then you’d start working a few weeks before the tassels were coming on and cut out any plants that were “rogues” which were either too tall or too short. In a good summer a young teen could make >$1,000 which was far better than any other job you could get. Walking beans and baling hay didn’t pay nearly as well. The bad part was we had to be at the bus stop before sunrise and would sometimes be walking through knee deep mud in wet, dew covered corn until the heat of the afternoon. We’d stay out there in the rain and even lightning if it didn’t seem to be too close. 
Sledgehammer pretty well summed up the rest of it. It’s like breeding livestock except with plants. 

I worked for Asgrow too. I remember when it was O’s Gold but that was before I worked there. I worked in the warehouse taking in and rebagging returns until detasseling time. I drove a machine rolling tassels before crews would walk the fields. That was a great job opportunity for kids. Seems like it’s mostly done by Hispanics now.

[Lazy WP]

What I saw yesterday, it looks like only 4 rows left standing. 2 cut out. Looked like a newer machine cutting out the 2 rows. Maybe CaseIH? I should’ve stopped and got pictures! Was quite interesting to see. 
I understand that they spray the corn with salt water to kill it? This would have been south of Fairmont Nebraska. Lots of Corteva and Pfizer in that region? 

[IH Forever]

1 hour ago, Lazy WP said:

What I saw yesterday, it looks like only 4 rows left standing. 2 cut out. Looked like a newer machine cutting out the 2 rows. Maybe CaseIH? I should’ve stopped and got pictures! Was quite interesting to see. 
I understand that they spray the corn with salt water to kill it? This would have been south of Fairmont Nebraska. Lots of Corteva and Pfizer in that region? 

I've seen a 4 female 2 male pattern used before with certain hybrids.  I think it has to do with how well the male disperses pollen?  I would say 4 and 1 is more common.

Back when I worked for Asgrow while in high school and college they had some production on 30" rows that used a 4 and 1 pattern.  They still had quite a bit 36" rows, on that they would interplant the male row between every other female row.

Most around here use Hagie Machines.  I have seen some Oxbo too as there is a dealer in Grundy Center as a lot of pickers are now Oxbo.

https://www.hagie.com/equipment-categories/detasseling/

https://oxbo.com/products/oxbo-5180/

[IH Forever]

12 hours ago, Lazy WP said:

What I saw yesterday, it looks like only 4 rows left standing. 2 cut out. Looked like a newer machine cutting out the 2 rows. Maybe CaseIH? I should’ve stopped and got pictures! Was quite interesting to see. 
I understand that they spray the corn with salt water to kill it? This would have been south of Fairmont Nebraska. Lots of Corteva and Pfizer in that region? 

They do spay a saline solution to get the plants to die early.  I don't know if they do this on all acres or certain hybrids.  A lot of this is driven by seed size.  By killing the plant early they can prevent having a lot of large round seed.  There may be other reasons such as harvest timing but I know when this first started seed size was a factor.

I used to work for Remington Hybrids in soybean production.  They have a corn plant at Hastings NE.  That irrigated land is a great area for seed corn production.

Back when I destroyed male rows we took off the detasseling bar and put on the cutter bar.  The cutters where basically like an old school rotary lawn mower.  The blades just ran on the ground and were ground driven as you moved through the field.  After detasseling was over we would sharpen the blades and get them ready to destroy the male rows in mid August.

[Lazy WP]

7 minutes ago, IH Forever said:

I've seen a 4 female 2 male pattern used before with certain hybrids.  I think it has to do with how well the male disperses pollen?  I would say 4 and 1 is more common.

Back when I worked for Asgrow while in high school and college they had some production on 30" rows that used a 4 and 1 pattern.  They still had quite a bit 36" rows, on that they would interplant the male row between every other female row.

Most around here use Hagie Machines.  I have seen some Oxbo too as there is a dealer in Grundy Center as a lot of pickers are now Oxbo.

https://www.hagie.com/equipment-categories/detasseling/

https://oxbo.com/products/oxbo-5180/

All I ever seen before was the 5 female version, and only Hagie machines. Just thought it was interesting. 
They will start harvesting in about three weeks. 

[Sledgehammer]

16 minutes ago, Lazy WP said:

All I ever seen before was the 5 female version, and only Hagie machines. Just thought it was interesting. 
They will start harvesting in about three weeks. 

It will be picked with large machines at high moisture most likely. I think OxBo makes a lot of that equipment. 

[IH Forever]

10 hours ago, Sledgehammer said:

It will be picked with large machines at high moisture most likely. I think OxBo makes a lot of that equipment. 

When I was young I remember Uni’s , then Byron, then they moved to Pixall, and now Oxbo. I think Oxbo may have purchased Pixall?

[Dirt_Floor_Poor]

38 minutes ago, IH Forever said:

When I was young I remember Uni’s , then Byron, then they moved to Pixall, and now Oxbo. I think Oxbo may have purchased Pixall?

I believe Byron bought Pixall and then eventually changed the name of the company to Oxbo. Pixall stalk rolls were once popular here before OEM’s had popular knife rolls. 

[Cummings1486]

1 hour ago, Dirt_Floor_Poor said:

I believe Byron bought Pixall and then eventually changed the name of the company to Oxbo. Pixall stalk rolls were once popular here before OEM’s had popular knife rolls. 

This is correct. I believe they even have the current paint color is a blend of the Byron Orange and the pixall yellow(which was pretty much John Deere yellow). I’ve been on a harvesting crew for close to 20 years and run a dump cart. Ran a Byron one for years and now have an oxbo. Very few Byron carts and pickers anymore. Everything is pretty much oxbo. I know of two Byron carts but the pickers and the pixalls are pretty much non existent. When I started out, it was done with 7 and 9 row heads. Now it’s all 14 rows and the occasional 12. How things have changed over the years. 

[Sledgehammer]

2 hours ago, IH Forever said:

When I was young I remember Uni’s , then Byron, then they moved to Pixall, and now Oxbo. I think Oxbo may have purchased Pixall?

I have no idea on that. I ran an OxBo combine for a year after we went away from custom built New Holland TR’s. We were shelling research plots and not picking production corn though. 

[Lazy WP]

Last week I went through York Nebraska. These were going down the road also. Pictures aren’t real great. Trying to drive and take pictures. 

[Rusty_Farmer]

Was at Becks last week in Atlanta  Ind.They were starting seed harvest this past Monday. The Oxbo's were all prep'ed and ready to go.