What is roguing?

Roguing is a job that takes place before the detasseling season. Generally the roguing season starts around the start of the month of July, give or take a few days and detasseling will start about 10-12 days after the start of roguing.

Where detassleing is an individual sport, roguing is a team sport. The roguing crew "sweeps" the field as a group spreading out in even intervals and moving through the field more or less as a group. Each person is responsible for their section of field and it is that person's job to remove rogue corn.

Rogues are corn that have mutated slightly and can easily be identified from other plants by their appearance. They are generally taller than the normal plants with a broad and darker leaf and a thicker base. Often times they have suckers, which are small corn plants growing in twos and threes from the base of the main plant.