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Vol. 7 Edition 33
YOUR Independent Community Newspaper THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2019
Fun times at WAMBO
FREE!
Children of C-K’s corn Corn detasseling season wraps up in C-K By Bruce Corcoran bruce@chathamvoice.com
Mary Beth Corcoran/The Chatham Voice
In the fifth annual Cardboard Boat Races at this year’s WAMBO celebration in Wallaceburg on Saturday, the Community Living sponsored Viking boat, pictured, slowly succumbs to weight, water and gravity after making it to the finish line. A good time, however, was had by all the teams who participated as the smiles of these competitors show. A large crowd was on hand to cheer on each and every team and give a hand up out of the water. For a host of photos from this year’s WAMBO festivities, please check out our website, chathamvoice.com.
It is said to be a rite of passage for many kids in Chatham-Kent – spending time as children of the corn. More to the point – it’s about getting up early and being in a cornfield before 8 a.m. and pulling tassel after tassel off four out of every five rows of corn. Corn crews are tasked with detasseling the female so it does not self-pollinate. For the crews of Pinco Detasseling, which is owned and operated by Gilles and Luc Pinsonneault, the detasseling is done for Pride Seeds. Gilles Pinsonneault said Pride has selected two inbred lines with proven agronomic characteristics. When combined, they become a hybridized corn plant, and the seed from the plant is what farmers rely on to achieve good-quality and high-yielding corn. “Our job of detasseling is to ensure the female line does not self-pollinate as the company wants only the male parent line to shed and pollinate the female line (seed parent),
thus ensuring a hybridization for a new seed,” Pinsonneault said. “The detasseling contractor’s role is to ensure 99.8 per cent of the female tassels are removed prior to them releasing pollen.” When The Chatham Voice caught up to Pinco detasselers, they were essentially mopping up on a large field between Given Line and Maple Line west of Pain Court. The corn had already been machined – detasseled to the point of between 60-to-90per-cent completed – and then hand detasseled. The young workers were in there performing “cleanup” duty, which is follow-up work on the heels of the machined and firstpull efforts. Pinsonneault said crews can make three or four passes through a field to achieve the desired level of purity. One out of every five rows of corn typically contain the male strain while the rest are female. Pinsonneault, a farmer by trade, has been running corn crews for nearly four decades. He said the kids generally have a great work ethic.
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