The Southwestern Fertilizer Conference (SWFC) rolled into San Antonio again last week, filling up every square inch of the Marriott River Center and River Walk Hotels, according to SWFC Executive Director Pat Miller. A record 168 suites were reserved.
While actual total attendance was off just a whisker at 1,773 from the year-ago 1,796, Miller said that was due to fewer spouses in attendance. Actual member attendance was up at 1,641. Some 748 companies and 20 countries were represented.
The SWFC named two new members to the Fertilizer Hall of Fame: Harold Trammell, Farmers Fertilizer Co., and Nelson Abell, Abell Corp.
Major industry chatter was heard on the CHS Inc. results (see page 1), possible Agrium Inc./Southern States deal (see page 1), and the pending Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. and Agrium merger. In addition, there was much talk of crop conditions, particularly the Northern Plains drought, as well as the expected UAN fill program.
New to the event was a morning speaker session with inaugural speaker Amal Deshpande, CEO and co-founder of Farmers Business Network (FBN) (GM Sept. 9, 2016). He detailed the company’s plan to democratize farm information with the goal of creating the largest network of agricultural information in the country and putting it in the hands of farmers, with FBN operating it for them. Farmers supply information, including crop acreage and ag input invoices, to FBN, and for an annual fee of $600 per farmer, FBN shares detailed results back with them. As result, in the ag input field, farmers can use the information to drive down prices.
FBN plans to make inroads in the areas of crop protection chemicals, seed, fertilizer, machinery, and technical services. Deshpande said the company had been particularly successful in the area of credit. He said the company, which is headquartered in San Carlos, Calif., and Sioux Fall, S.D., is also moving into crop marketing.
FBN also has a procurement service, which delivers product to growers, as well as direct pickup from some 11 warehouse locations in Iowa, eastern South Dakota, western Minnesota, northern Montana, and central California.
Deshpande said that while there has been skepticism that farmers would share their information, the company signed up 1 million acres in April. He said the service currently covers some 14 million acres, with nearly 4,000 farms. He said the goal was to sign up 30 percent of the nation’s viable acres within the next 12-18 months.
Deshpande said that major ag consolidation is not beneficial to the farmer, adding that not a single large ag player wants to play with FBN. On the ag input side, to date, most of FBN’s success has been in the areas of seed and crop protection chemicals. He said that once the company has a relevant sample on fertilizer, it will be released. Industry sources noted that in the area of procurement, fertilizer will be harder to tackle since so much is sold in bulk.
While Deshpande sees the service as helping farmers drive down prices, he said farmers want a fair price, not the lowest – i.e., that the service would not necessarily harm the local supplier. “You are not a farmer,” said one attendee at the back of the audience. Another attendee said he could see steam coming out of the ears of some who were hearing about farmers taking photos of invoices and sending them to FBN.