a quick note to keep you in the loop on a few things I’m seeing in the crop protection industry…
- Glyphosate
I’ve noticed that the Glyphosate market has softened slightly the past few weeks. While it’s only dropped a few dollars it’s nice to see prices drop for a change. Here’s my two cents on Glyphosate right now… if you haven’t locked down your supply for the season I would make plans to do that as soon as possible! I’ve been seeing prices in the upper $40s and to be honest, that’s not a bad cost position this season. A couple of things to consider… (a) China has went back into lockdown mode again, this could get things backed up again on the technical side pretty quick. (b) Make sure you are getting the right pound material, I’ve seen a lot of “generic roundup” recently w/ about half of the acid equivalent of what we are used to and this could create some major efficacy issues into the season. (c) Regardless of whether you get your Glyphosate from us at FBN or another retailer –do your best to confirm it’s availability and take possession of the product as soon as you can. I’ve had conversations w/ at least 50 farmers this month already who had booked products earlier w/ their local co-ops or retailers only to have their orders cancelled. It’s just a crazy season in that regard, there are more sales than inventory. (d) I personally think that Glyphosate will go on another upward swing once we get in-season, it’s just my gut…
- Paraquat
Apparently Paraquat continues to be short across the industry. I would estimate at least 75% of my phone calls last week were about Paraquat. Fortunately, some of the tariffs associated w/ products like Paraquat have started to go away. While this great news from a “cost of goods sold” perspective, it’s still going to be a long time before this impacts the price of Paraquat that we currently have in the supply chain. In fact, I’m hearing that the prices have continuously gone up on the broker markets over the past few weeks because of supply being well below demand. We have Paraquat in inventory at FBN right now but we’ve had to limit sales to 4 totes per grower because we’ve had brokers and resellers trying to scoop up our supply to mark it up and put it back out on the market. I personally don’t think that’s very “farmers first” in this environment. Of course, if we have a grower that has the acreage and needs a truckload of Paraquat, we are happy to take care of them.
- Fungicides
Typically when market prices are good we see an uptick in the use of fungicides, it just makes sense to do whatever you can do to pick up a yield boost if it pencils out. Well… here’s the problem. Markets are high and fungicides are in short supply! We are already sold out of Tebuconazole, Priaxor, and even Propiconazole is sold out (but we are hoping to have more in June). The only fungicide we have in stock at the moment is Azoxystrobin, which is generic Quadris. This is one of the most commonly used fungicides in the mid-south so if we had to pick one to have this would be it. Unfortunately, we’ve already sold out once this season but were able to quickly restock. While we do have inventory right now I don’t suspect it will last long, so if you are thinking about fungicide this season, I highly recommend locking down some Azoxystrobin asap!
- Insecticides
In my opinion, early demand this season was placed on herbicides, and for good reason, but as we all know… it won’t be long before plant bugs, worms, etc. make their way onto our radar. I’ve heard of shortages of certain products in the industry and some extreme price increases (especially on Acephate, which we will not have this season). At the moment, we have Lambda-cy, Bifenthrin, Diamond (short supply), Imidacloprid (short supply), Inspirato (short supply), and Abba Ultra (short supply). While prices are higher than we’ve seen in previous seasons I’m confident they aren’t as high as we are going to see once we get into the season if we have a lot of insect pressure. I highly recommend picking up some of these products if you expect to use them this season based on having used them in previous seasons.
- Rice Herbicides
If you are in the market for any Rice specific herbicides this season give me a shout. We have some special pre and post programs that will help you cut your costs dramatically. Just let me know what you are looking for and we will get you hooked up! Don’t buy Propanil or Ricebeaux before talking w/ me!
- 10% Discount on Adjuvants & Nutritional
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- $750 New Customer Discount
Get rewarded for purchasing your inputs with FBN Direct® for the first time! FBN is offering a $750 discount to farmers who purchase for the first time through the FBN Direct® store
- The Benefits of Sharing Your Data (Seed Labels, Chemical Invoices, etc.)
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