SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — To help farmers during the uncertain times of the coronavirus pandemic, Farmers Business Network is opening its online ag chemical store to all farmers and has launched a sale on products.
“Because farmers are facing a lot of pain, we are offering discounts,” said Charles Baron, co-founder of Farmers Business Network.
The Cyber Summer Sale includes 27% discounts on more than half of the ag chemical products available for sale in the FBN Direct store through July 31.
“The FBN model has always been one price around the country and also we’re helping to push farmers’ prices down no matter where they live or if they are FBN members because the market is forced to get more competitive with FBN pricing,” Baron said.
FBN includes more than 11,500 members across United States and Canada.
“We’re serving farmers of all types and all sizes, including farmers with a few dozen acres to farmers with thousands of acres,” Baron said. “Every farmer benefits from transparency.”
Ecommerce has been the business model from the beginning of FBN, so when the coronavirus hit the United States earlier this year, the company was able to continue operating without major disruptions.
“We quickly adapted our hubs and deliveries to be touchless,” Baron said.
“In March, we saw our highest number of new members join FBN ever in a month, well over 500 members,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to give farmers the best prices we have access to.”
During the past year, FBN has created 170 hubs in the United States and Canada. In Illinois, hubs are located at Brocton, Bushnell, Greenville, Lincoln, Mendota and Popular Grove. Indiana hubs are in Decatur, Elnora and Walkerton.
“A hub is a member farmer who will make sales in the local area and serve members,” Baron said. “They may have a warehouse where we store product, and members have been really enthusiastic to be able to save money on shipping and have a local person to work with, as well.”
The company developed FBN Direct as a result of the amount of price discrepancies found for the cost of chemicals and seed.
“We had cases where a retailer was charging almost twice the amount from one farmer to another,” Baron said. “And we found products being sold in multiple states two, three or five times the price.”
At the end of 2018, FBN added F2F Genetics, which includes corn, soybean, alfalfa and sorghum seed.
“The seed industry remarkets seeds and gives it a brand name, so there might the exact same genetics sold by 15 brands for completely different prices,” Baron said. “The price difference could be $100 per bag in the same state for the same product.”
F2F Genetics were grown on almost 1,000 farms during 2019, Baron said.
“The yield results show F2F Genetics outperformed on a return on investment standpoint 72% of time,” he said. “F2F Genetics were the superior economic choice to the other seeds that the farmer was planting.”
FBN offers marketing services for its members, and in the fall of 2019, the company launched FBN Finance.
“This allows us to provide operating loans, land and equipment loans to growers,” Baron said.
“In February, when the Fed cut interest rates, we were very aggressive to get those rates in front of farmers so they could get access to them,” he said. “With rates on land refinancing below 2% this is really a historic opportunity for farmers to refinance and lock in savings that could last for decades.”
Baron said he encourages any farmer who has a farmland loan to consider refinancing.
“This is one of the biggest opportunities farmers have to change an element of their cost structure,” he said. “Give us a call because since we’re an online value provider of services we’re able to pass on low rates, and we’re all about driving as much value back to the farm as we can.”
In some cases, Baron said, compared to December 2018 there is almost 1.5-point reduction in interest rates.
“That could be tens of thousands of dollars in savings for the life of the loan,” he said. “Or, depending on how much land a farmer is buying, it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Farmers can access FBN products by calling 844-200-FARM or visiting www.fbn.com/deals to shop online.