Farmers Business Network - Great Source of Information from people with muddy boots

In previous posts, I provided a few sources that I visit periodically in order to take the pulse of the agricultural community:

• trade magazines
• government departments (including some of the Federal Reserve Banks located in agricultural areas)
• regional/local newspapers

Recently, I came across a real gem while reading this article:

FARMERS BUSINESS NETWORK IS DISRUPTING HOW SEED IS LABELED AND SOLD

It led me to explore further:

Farmers Business Network

The FBN Network came about when farmers wanted to develop an independent, unbiased, and objective farmer-driven information source — no marketing fluff, just the facts on raw performance. They knew that if they could share their agronomic precision data with one another, they could all make better decisions on seeds and agronomics.  ...

What started as the dream of a handful of farmers in 2014 spread to a network of thousands of America’s best farmers managing over 8 million acres in just two years. As each new farmer joins the FBN Network, every member’s seed information, agronomic analytics, and buying power gets stronger. When farmers connect, farmers win - and the services, technology, and network keep growing.

Click on the above-noted link to learn more.  Among other things, the FBN provides farmers with a way to buy fertilizer in a transparent way and at good prices.  By harnessing the wisdom of the crowd, the FBN also decodes seed genetics to enable farmers to buy seed knowledgeably: many branded seed types sell at different prices even when the genetic varieties are the same.  Collectively, seed companies to date have been reluctant to provide a greater degree of transparency about their varieties in order to allow farmers to make meaningful comparisons.  So ... the FBN stepped into the breech.  

It's akin to a farmers' co-operative, but driven by the power of the Internet ... and very much in tune with the way of doing business in today's farming community.  All in all, a very interesting business model which I'll follow with great interest. 

It is well worth exploring the site in detail.  I have subscribed to the FBN blog.

Emergence

It provides a "real world" view from the field - not the blandishments of equipment manufacturers and the like.  In this sense it is invaluable, especially for leads on investing.

If you subscribe to the blog you can download some special reports.  One of them, The Voice of the Farmer, provides a very sobering perspective on the realities of farming in the United States - also applicable to Canada with the exception that Canadian farmers are not burdened by health care expenses to the same extent as in the U.S.

It's just about THE BEST overview I have encountered to date.