Kernels for college

With the ever increasing cost of college tuition and the ever increasing cuts to the state’s Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS), students and their parents are sent scratching to find ways to cover the difference. Because of this, one recent high school graduate from Whiteville, with the help of her family, has started scratching in the dirt to grow corn in order to raise money for college.
“My dad (Matt) works in agriculture at CPS (Crop Production Services), and it was his idea to help me out with this,” said Katelyn Stagg. “We started last year, and it made enough money to help me start saving for school.”
Katelyn’s mother Tina said that all her three children work on the corn. “My husband figured it would be a great idea to teach them a little work ethic and teach them that hard work can make a little extra money,” she stated. “It’s kind of a family thing. Emily and Ethan get a little bit of the money, but the rest goes all into Katelyn’s college fund.”
The 2018 graduate of St. Ed’s in Eunice plans on attending LSU-
A in the fall for nursing. Then, after her four years there, Katelyn said, “I’ll go back to school to be a nurse anesthetist.” She added, “Last year’s amount of money from selling the corn will cover most of the tuition for this year, and this year’s corn will help next year’s tuition. It should help pay for most of my college.”
“We’ll probably continue it until the young ones take over and can start raising money for college,” Tina said.
Katelyn added, “It’s fun until we get an order of 83 dozen and then we’re out in the sun all day, or if they ask for the corn to be shucked. Then that’s a whole other hour. But, other than that, it’s really not hard to grow the corn.”
The Staggs started raising the corn last year and did well with it, even though they ran into weather conditions with the flood. “The flood was bad,” Katelyn said. “The bayou is right behind the house, and it came up really high. We lost a lot of the crops toward the bottom.”
The flood created another problem by washing away a lot of the seed that was already planted. As Tina explained, “Last year, they had to hand seed because the flood washed out parts of it. They couldn’t use any equipment to come back and replant the seeds because they had to spot plant in between what came up and what didn’t come up.”
Then, this year, the Staggs ran into the drought conditions. “We had to work just as hard this year with the drought,”Katelyn said. “We had to add the irrigation.”
The irrigation system was designed by Matt and pumps water from Bayou Boeuf. “I just had this idea that I could pump out water from the bayou with a little jagger pump,” he said. “I basically got a nurse wagon from work and irrigated out the bayou with a two-inch jagger pump on a 15-inch polypipe. I didn’t even know if it would work or not, but it works.”
The self-designed irrigation system also has an added benefit. “The corn field is actually on a hill, and, when they put the polypipe across, the natural gravity pulls the water back toward the bayou,” explained Tina. “So, we recycle.”
The process of growing the corn starts with Matt plowing the field and making the rows. Then, the childrens’ jobs begin. “The kids and I went and put the seeds by hand last year because the flood washed them out, but this year dad has a machine that throws the seed,” said Katelyn.
“My husband designed a machine where he can wash and spray the seeds out,” added Tina.
Besides designing the irrigation system and the seed spreader, Matt also designed the half-acre field in way that is most effective. Tina stated, “He designed the field to be planted in thirds so that it’s something they can manage since all of it has to be handpicked.”
“He plants it in three sections at different times, so the corn will come up a week after each other,” Katelyn added. “The first week already went by, and we picked and sold everything in a week. We’re done with that one, and, right now, our next section is about to come up.”
However, as Ethan pointed out, “The last section might not make it because of the drought. Any water that it does get is sucked up by the tree behind it.”
After the corn seed is planted, then it is time for the Staggs to fertilize the crops. Not much fertilizer is needed; though, because of what Tina calls “organic fertilizer.” She said, “We used to have horses, so that helps fertilize.”
Matt said that wherever the corn is the greenest is where the field has the highest concentration of horse manure.
The final stage of the process is the hand picking. Ethan said, “We hand pick it because we want to get the most out of it. Other farmers just wait until the corn hardens so that they can pick it all with a tractor.”
As Tina explained, “Most of the farmers around here are selling corn for grain, and they have to wait until it hardens. They’re not going to pick it when it’s still soft like we do.”
Katelyn said that it really is not hard to pick the corn by hand. “We just pull the ear down, and it comes off of the stalk,” she said. “We get up at 7:00 a.m. to do it because, by the afternoon, we don’t want to be out here picking corn.”
After all the corn is harvested, it is then sold to raise money for college. “My dad puts it on Facebook, and people call to make orders,” Katelyn said. “Then, when it’s ready, we start calling them back to come pick it up in the crawfish sacks.”
Other than growing corn, the Staggs also grow tomatoes, snap beans, purple hull peas, and cucumbers. Katelyn’s favorite crop to grow is tomatoes because of the home made salsa. “I’m getting kind of tired of eating corn everyday,” she said.
Even though Katelyn is getting tired of eating the corn, raising the corn has taught her a lot about life on top of raising money for her college expenses. “If you want to make money, then you have to do hard work,” she expressed. “I really don’t mind doing this everyday. The hours aren’t bad like you would expect. I still have time to do what I want and to go see my friends. It’s only an hour or two a day of work until we start harvesting.”
For Katelyn’s parents, the corn has yielded other benefits. “I think it’s really a good thing for kids to get out of the house and get off of these cell phones and video games,” commented Matt.
Tina concluded that it is amazing to get up in the morning and see the kids looking at the weather reports.