View from the Cab: Hats off to Farm Hats

It is always nice to hear of individuals being honored for their efforts in agriculture. This is especially true when the honoree comes from our own backyard.

Congratulations to Kent Blunier of Forrest for receiving the Excellence in Media award at last week’s annual meeting of the Illinois Corn Growers Association in Bloomington-Normal. Blunier started the Farm Hats Facebook page a few years ago with hopes of connecting farmers and consumers. The page has around 11,000 members.

“(Illinois) Corn Growers jumped behind it right away with the first Farm Hat we gave away at the Farm Progress Show, Blunier told me after receiving the award.

Farm Hats will donate $500 to the National FFA Foundation thanks to hat and shirt sales in the weeks leading up to the holiday season.

Blunier has been involved with the Livingston County Corn Growers Association for several years and has served as president. He has been attending the annual meeting of the ICGA for at least 10 years. Blunier still drives the small corn cars in area parades – a tradition he has carried on for a while.

One of the recurring themes of last week’s ICGA meeting was uncertainty turning into opportunity. ICGA members were instructed to be bold and to remember the saying, “no risk no gain.” Growers should capitalize on any opportunities in this world of low prices and a high cost of production.

Also last week, ICGA elected directors and at-large directors for 2017-18 and recognized county organizations from the counties of DeKalb, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Knox, Livingston, Monroe-St.Clair, Peoria, Tazewell, Wayne and Will. Retiring ICGA and ICMB directors were acknowledged as well.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and were able to spend it with family and friends. I am still trying to recover from two turkey dinners last Thursday and a weekend full of leftovers, but I think I’ll survive.

(The View from the Cab blog is powered each week by Petersen Chevy-Buick of Fairbury)