View from the Cab: In the hood

One of Kent's many hoodies around the house.

By: Kent Casson

When you hear the term “hoodie weather” I bet you think of football and other outdoor fall activities.

I think of harvest season. Hoodies are like the new hats for farmers. In case you are unfamiliar with this reference, hoodies are sweatshirts with hoods that are great for dressing in layers when the day starts off in the 40s and reaches the upper 60s or even low 70s by afternoon.

An abundant supply of hoodies fills my closet and these mostly have ag themes. A couple are from Pioneer seed while another came from Precision Planting. In the non-farm category, I even have an old American Eagle hooded sweatshirt from my college days. You know, it is always important to be stylish out in the field. Even if it is outdated!

If you attend enough ag meetings throughout the year, you will find these items are easy to accumulate thanks to freebie giveaways. My hat collection is still very impressive – with a variety ranging from seed companies to planting products and local businesses. The Illinois Soybean Association gave me a cool hat over the summer to promote their outreach efforts.

Someone even approached me before the harvest season to see if I had any extra farm hats around the house he could give his father who was helping an area farmer with harvest. You aren’t truly a farmer until you sport a farm hat or hoodie, I guess.

These ag companies should move away from marketing themselves through hats and sweatshirts and move to blue jeans. Wouldn’t it be cool to receive a free pair of work jeans from your favorite seed corn company? All of the jeans I consider old have holes in them and look pretty ragged. One of my good pairs will soon be delegated to ag duty.

My supply of farm jackets is adequate. The Beck’s Carhart comes in handy on those frosty mornings while the Brandt light jacket is good for the days that aren’t truly cold but have a bit of autumn chill in the air. The Stine sweatshirt is really warm and even has a fuzzy inside for extra insulation.

The BCS and Precision Planting stocking hats keep my ears warm when the wind chill dips. I also have a pair of durable black work gloves but I can’t recall what company they are from. So, thanks…whoever you are.

Perhaps we should come up with some Central Illinois Farm Network hats, hoodies and coats. They could be the next big thing in farm fashion. Keep an eye out for more as you never know when there may be a giveaway in your future.