At the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Convention, Farm Director KC Sheperd visited with Ian Loar at the Farmer’s Business Network’s booth. FBN is celebrating its tenth year of business.
“We deliver crop production inputs, lending solutions, sustainable grain marketing, and risk management solutions for farmers,” Loar stated. “We are up to a hundred thousand members now.”
FBN’s 8th Annual Cyber Sale kicked off this month and offers zero percent interest on input purchases.
“At FBN, we have a history of providing a tremendous amount of transparency regarding pricing in the marketplace and input trends,” Loar added. “This year, crop protection pricing is back to all-time lows, and looking forward into 2025, there is some uncertainty on the horizon so our advice is to start hedging some of that risk.”
He emphasized that the zero percent interest rate on input purchases being offered by FBN this month is a great way to lock in those input costs and relieve some of the uncertainty about next year.
He pointed out that interest rates have stayed relatively high. “The federal government has given us some relief recently, and there could be more on the horizon, but compared to interest rates two or three years ago, it is still taking a much bigger piece out of anybody’s operating budget than it historically has.”
He encouraged farmers to visit fbn.com to see for themselves how much the platform offers. “We have a full suite of analytics available to help you with recommendations regarding hybrid selection, and just making educated decisions on how and when to purchase inputs or market grain,” he said.
