Our team at FBN is spread out across the country bright and early this morning helping growers book their crop inputs, making deliveries, and attending trade shows. Today will be extremely busy for everyone because it’s the last day for growers to lockdown 0% financing for the entire season. The past few days have been the busiest I can remember since we launched. I’m so blessed to work with some of the brightest, hardest working people I have ever known. It’s also really cool to know that your work has an impact. Here are three things that are top of mind this morning…
We had a grower approach us to price some chemicals for this season to see if he could cut some costs because his landlords had increased his rent by $40k. Our team went to work on his crop plan and were able to save him $50k. We quoted him exactly what he uses every season and was planning to purchase from his local retailer again. With margins so tight in agriculture every penny counts.
I had another grower approach me this week that has never done business with us before to see if we could help him as well. The local retailer he has done business with for almost 15 years was planning on charging him 11% interest, we got him locked in at 0%. This guy will likely use $300k of products this season… do the math on that.
Lastly, and this one is important… the EPA recently pulled a product off the market that growers in the mid-south rely on heavily. Our team had already booked most of our inventory with growers back in November and December prior to it being pulled. Those growers are being delivered their products right now or were already delivered in the past few days. I received a call two days ago from a reseller that I do not know very well and they said they knew I had sold this product to my growers for $133 gallon and if I’d be willing to cancel some of their orders they would pay me $150 a gallon for a truckload. Of course I would not even entertain such an idea, nor would anyone on our team. It’s an absurd business practice that’s contrary to our mission & vision. While I can sleep easy at night knowing that we’d never do something like this to our growers it bothers me to no end that this practice has gone on in the industry for decades.
How can I know for sure that we’d never go down this road as I company? I can remember several years back when we were just getting started there was a product that we accidentally oversold. We didn’t catch it until it was so late in the season that it was going to put our customers in a tight spot even locating it somewhere else and even if they did they were going to spend considerably more for something because of a mistake on our end. Instead, our team went out on the open market and brought in enough product at a much higher cost to fulfill existing orders because it was the right thing to do.
These are just three reasons that are top of mind for me this morning that are why I love doing what I do. Things are going to happen, especially in our industry. Being able to help growers find solutions to these challenges is what keeps me up at night and motivates me to hit the ground running each morning.
I’ll be in Memphis this weekend at the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show along with members of our team meeting with about 20,000 growers and industry professionals. Meanwhile some of our team are already on the floor at Commodity Classic in Houston doing the same. We also have team members on the road delivering products or working behind a desk to assist growers in securing their financing for operating, equipment, and crop inputs for the season. I guarantee that if you asked them what motivates them their answers would be similar to mine. We call it #FarmersFirst.
If you are planning on being in Memphis this weekend be sure to give me a shout or stop by our booth 4118.
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