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Farmers Business Network (FBN®), the global AgTech platform and farmer-to-farmer network today opened Farmer2Farmer VI, its global conference dedicated to bringing farmers and ranchers together to share their experiences and access the year’s most significant innovations from agronomy, technology, and fintech to help them drive profit potential across their operations. Farmer2Farmer is a unique event in agriculture, bringing farmers and ranchers to center stage to lead discussions about challenges and successes to their business along with three days of educational sessions, expert presentations, keynote speakers and trade show demonstrations, taking place at the CHI Center in Omaha from December 6-8.
What Farmers Say About Farmer2Farmer
After a 2-year hiatus during the pandemic, Farmer2Farmer returned this year to bring more than 3,000 farmers and ranchers together with leading innovators in agriculture to learn and create long-lasting connections. Two farmers attending Farmer2Farmer described its value this way:
″Going into 2023, I’ll be farming over 100x what I was when I started out a few short years ago in 2017. The reason Farmer2Farmer is unique and valuable to me is because of the wealth of knowledge passed along when meeting farmers from outside your own neighborhood from all walks of life.″ Ethan Clarke, Owner/Operator, Clake Farms, Washington, Indiana.
″Farmer2Farmer is a chance to talk to experts in almost every field of agriculture and put them in your back pocket; you may not need them today, but you will. Every farmer knows the tool you don’t have is the one you will need; Farmer2Farmer fills our toolboxes.″ Mike Galloway, Gillette, Wyoming, Rancher producing beef, pork, and chicken.
FBN Innovations for 2023: Creating Whole-Farm Profit System that Puts Farmers First®
The idea for the FBN network originated from farmers who wanted to create an independent, farmer-driven information and commerce network. At Farmer2Farmer, FBN will share updates from across its Ag Tech platform, including major innovation milestone announcements from: FBN Direct® input ecommerce platform; new FBN Finance offerings including loans, insurance and premium sustainability program; and updates from FBN Analytics’ comprehensive agronomic-network data analytics and decision support programs.
″Our goal in founding FBN in 2014 and in convening Farmer2Farmer each year is the same: We aim to bring our members the newest tools, technologies, and insights they can leverage to maximize profit potential in in the next growing season—and to build critical connections based on shared experiences and knowledge in agriculture,″ said Amol Deshpande, CEO and co-founder of FBN. ″This year, the stakes are higher than ever for farmers as they grapple with multiple threats to their balance sheets—from rising input costs and interest rates to continuing shocks from the Russia-Ukraine war, and the impact of severe weather and drought which presents major threats to livestock, yield, and transport.″
At Farmer2Farmer, FBN will announce major innovations across its businesses including:
FBN Direct will announce major updates to its pioneering digital buying platform for inputs designed to give growers a fully integrated e-commerce platform, access to high-quality branded and generic products, a global logistics network, and an expanded Community Builder network of local farmer partners. Announcements include:
Expanded Crop Protection Portfolio to provide farmers with choice, excellent quality, and supply reliability FBN announced the expansion of the Farmers First® brand of Crop Nutrition, Adjuvants, and Crop Protection - complementing its WillowoodUSA brand of high-quality generics. FBN expects to have 18 of the top 25 crop protection products in the US market available as an FBN brand by 2025.
Digital Agronomy - Seamless Purchasing In November 2022, FBN launched a major new crop inputs planning technology, FBN® Acre Packs, on FBN.com. Acre Packs enable farmers to construct an input program for seven crops, and automatically calculate their total cost per acre instantly for seed, crop protection, adjuvants, herbicides, fungicides and crop nutrition—all optional for purchase and transparently priced—giving farmers unprecedented insight into and control of their input costs.
Expanded Logistics, Integrated 0% Input & Operating Financing Options The online shopping experience on FBN.com was enhanced this year with two near-instant decision financing options (Input & Operating Lines) and the ability for customers to set and track their on-farm delivery schedule thanks to FBN’s expanded logistics network of its owned distribution centers & fleet. The FBN delivery network now covers 87% & 97% of US and Canadian members' acres respectively within 250 miles. In 2022, FBN saw customer delivery satisfaction scores rise 85%.
Expanded Livestock Program, Digital Feed Store and Amino Acid Based Cattle Nutrition Enhancements to FBN’s livestock program include its digital feed store for Liquid Feed offering instant price quotes and forward booking, a new amino acid-focused cattle nutrition program for feeders offering improved cost of gain, carcass value and feed efficiency, and integrated livestock risk management programs through FBN Insurance.
Expanded Seed Portfolio, Including Enlist E3™ Trait Access FBN announced an expanded and refreshed seed portfolio covering traited & conventional corn & soybeans, sorghum & millet, and hybrid Rye. Trait access includes Agrisure(r), Viptera(r), and Duracade(r) programs for corn and Enlist E3 program for soybeans - to provide growers cutting edge genetics & traits at transparent national, no-zone list pricing.
Expansion of Community Builder Partners FBN announced the expansion of the FBN Community Builders program to provide growers local partners to support their input and livestock supply purchasing to over 700 partners globally.
Expanded R&D, Product Pipeline, and Trialing at Scale FBN’s R&D Investment program is scaling rapidly, with highlights including 262 global crop protection registrations, 54 new products in the pipeline, 250 new field trials through its Innovators Research League including 50 novel technologies tested.
FBN FINANCE: An Integrated Digital Platform for Family Farm Financial Freedom
FBN Finance, the revolutionary integrated financial platform for farmers, will announce updates In four major areas – farm finance, risk management, grain services & technology, and sustainability.
Fully Digital Loan Platform FBN Finance’s digital finance platform now covers Operating Lines of Credit, Input Financing, Land Financing and Equipment Financing with seamless online applications, loan management and upcoming digital payment options.
ADM Integration & Expanded Buyer Access In 2022 FBN and ADM expanded their sustainable Ag Tech Platform to offer FBN's Gradable®—a comprehensive digital platform offering farm business management and sustainability data collection solutions—to up to 55,000 producers across North America, providing a modern digital infrastructure to strengthen the relationship between grain buyers and farmers, as a new era emerges requiring efficient, transparent, and secure grain transactions for production agriculture. Gradable’s digital infrastructure connects farmer and buyer experiences into a single, secure technology platform, laying the groundwork for increased farmer participation in new sustainability markets by allowing them to seamlessly collect and calculate verifiable production data–including carbon scores—empowering them to monetize these downstream benefits in the market.
Up to $1 Billion over 3-5 Years in Regenerative Ag Finance Also in 2022, together with the Environmental Defense Fund, FBN launched its Regenerative Agriculture Finance, or RAF, fund, one of the first U.S. agricultural financing programs to incentivize farmers to adopt regenerative practices by meeting soil health and nitrogen efficiency standards with up to 0.5% lower rates and fees on seasonal operating lines of credit, as well as agronomic insights to optimize the on-farm benefits of regenerative practices. The RAF program became one of FBN’s most popular financial programs ever, selling out quickly. At Farmer2Farmer, FBN announced they are expanding the program, and anticipates originating up to $1 billion in climate-smart operating lines in the next five years to enable wider adoption of sustainable agriculture practices.
Expanded Sustainability Premium Programs Through FBN Gradable® FBN’s commitment to providing the regenerative services, technology, and grain marketing services that enable farmers to participate in premium programs for sustainably farmed crops and low carbon grain grew rapidly in 2022, with nearly 2,000 farmers enrolled in sustainability programs and major partnerships with ADM, POET Ethanol and MSP Eggs. Next year, tens of thousands of farmers will have access to features of Gradable, FBN’s sustainability platform, at over 150+ locations.
Expanded Digital Insurance Platform for Crops and Livestock FBN Insurance now features a 45 licensed agent network available in all 50 states. With data-enabled optimization analysis, programs have been expanded to include MPCI, Hail & Wind, Revenue & Margin Protection, Whole Farm Revenue Protection, Livestock, Pasture-Rangeland-Forage, and Parametric Coverage. FBN’s Digital Insurance policy center offers the convenience of policies and documents all in one place, with personalized risk and coverage optimization analysis through integrated data science tools. FBN Insurance is now a Top 10 crop insurance agency in the United States.
FBN’s integrated grain marketing technology combines news, bids, offers, hedges, contracts, tickets with no data required.
News Announcements and FBN Universities at Farmer2Farmer
FBN also issued several major news announcements at the conference, as well as commodity outlooks and new reporting from FBN Research led by Chief Economist Kevin McNew.
″Every year Farmer2Farmer is an unparalleled learning experience for us as conversations with our farmer members help inform how we prioritize the development of new products and services on the FBN platform,″ says Deshpande. ″As the name suggests, farmers are the conversation drivers at Farmer2Farmer and our job is to absorb what they tell us and take those back to the drawing board.″
Farmer2Farmer will also feature keynotes from leadership expert and legendary Navy Seal officer Jocko Willink, co-author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, legendary climber and subject of the documentary Free Solo, Alex Honnold, and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan.
FBN will also provide numerous educational sessions through FBN University Special Seminars:
Understanding Biologicals
Seed Selection & Placement
Feedlot University
Cow-Calf University
Swine & Dairy University
Farm Finance University
Climate in Ag Summit with NASA Harvest
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