First Job Series: Kurt Kuta
First Job:
Farmhand | Fontanelle Hybrids or Pioneer Seed Corn
Age 12 | $3.10/hr
Responsibilities
We pulled the tassels out of staggered rows of corn in a field so they could be pollinated by other rows of corn (which kept their tassels). The objective was to pick the fields “clean” so the desired pollination would occur to create the desired hybrid seed corn. We would load the school buses while it was still dark in the morning, get into the fields shortly after sunrise, and get home around 6:00 for dinner. It made for wet, muddy, hot, and long days. Eventually in the latter (high school) years I ran some crews. They used to call us “straw bosses.” One of my better titles ever!
Why this job?
It was one of the few jobs for young kids at that time. It worked well with youth/ high school sports as the de-tasseling season was after baseball and before football. Ended up being a great physical and mental conditioning job for football.
Best Memories
So many memories with my friends. It was tough work, but we found ways to have fun and work through it. Playing tricks on the hard- case straw bosses. Putting frogs into other kid’s water jugs. Ambushing (or getting ambushed) in the middle of the field. Some kids (not me... never!) stopping in the middle of the field to have their cigarette (or other) break. Kids quitting in the middle of the day after they figured out they had made enough money to buy their new car stereo.
One windy day we accidentally got crop dusted from a plane on an adjacent field and the collective puke-fest in the ditches and buses that followed.
And finally, when I ran my first crew and in one of my first management experiences, I had to fire my two sisters, a cousin and a family friend because they could not keep up nor pick their rows clean enough. Not a great family dinner that night.
Life Lessons
You are stronger and tougher than you give yourself credit for. When you find yourself in a half-mile row of tall corn and it is 90 degrees and humid, you had to learn to just keep grinding.
You had to learn to work with all kinds of people to get the work done and get along.
In the final two years we were paid more if we could be both fast and pick fields clean with fewer passes. So, I learned competition and rewards in the work- place works! But in order to have that work for the whole team, we had to help those that were not as fast, tall, strong... whatever...so we could all get a higher reward. Team before me.
Teen Advice
Learn your responsibilities. Ask questions if those are not clear. Ask for feedback. Then always ask what more you can do and what else can you learn. The minimum responsibilities are where you start, not where you end.
