A New Law Was Supposed to Reveal Who's Detasseling Nebraska's Corn. It Didn't Really

Nov 03, 2025

By Nick Loomis and Molly Ashford

Scott Wilcox wasn’t surprised when Bayer, one of the largest seed corn producers in the world, did not renew its contract with the detasseling company he owned and operated out of Seward, Neb., after the 2020 season.

In the nine years that Wilcox hired and supervised detasseling crews for Monsanto and Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, he began to notice an increasing number of migrant workers in the seed corn fields near his crews of local teenagers. State and national data indicate that many of those migrant workers likely held H-2A visas.

“They don’t have to take care of them like they are required to take care of us, the kids from Nebraska,” said Wilcox, a teacher who made extra money detasseling in the summer. “It was just a way cheaper way for them to go.”

The number of farm labor contractors employing local teens in Nebraska dropped from 27 in 2019 to 15 in 2025, according to data from the Nebraska Department of Labor.

Cross-referencing that data with a national database of H-2A employers showed the number of detasseling contractors employing H-2A visa holders in Nebraska rose from three to five over the same time period.

The H-2A visa program was introduced in 1986 in response to farm labor shortages, mostly in fruit and vegetable harvesting, that require large amounts of manual labor for extended periods. It allows agricultural employers to bring in foreign workers on temporary visas if they can prove that domestic labor isn’t available.

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Video: Winter Canola Trial in Mississippi | Can It Work for Double Cropping? | Pioneer Agronomy

Can winter canola open new opportunities for growers in the Mid-South? In this agronomy update from Noxubee County, Mississippi, Pioneer agronomist Gus Eifling shares an early look at a first-year winter canola trial and what farmers are learning from the field.

Planted in late October on 30-inch rows, the crop is now entering the bloom stage and progressing quickly. In this video, we walk through current field conditions, fertility management, and how timing could make this crop a valuable option for double-cropping soybeans or cotton.

If harvest timing lines up with early May, growers may be able to transition directly into another crop during ideal planting windows. Ongoing field trials will help determine whether canola could become a viable rotational option for the region.

Watch for:

How winter canola is performing in its first season in this Mississippi field

Why growers chose 30-inch rows for this trial

What the crop looks like as it moves from bolting into bloom

Fertility strategy, including nitrogen and sulfur applications

How canola harvest timing could enable double-cropping with soybeans or cotton

Upcoming trials comparing soybeans after canola vs. traditional planting

As more growers look for ways to maximize acres and diversify rotations, experiments like this help determine what new crops might fit into existing systems.