chem dealers

[darren442]

I have recently found out about the FNA i must have been under a rock to miss this one. I looked at there price of oil. For a drum of 10W30 they state there cost is $320.00 and were i work for 10W30 is $420.00.

Can someone fill me in on this FNA is it good or bad. It looks like a good deal on the surface.

[SASKFARMER3]

My membership is in the first 100 that they sold.
We have saved thousands over the years and yes their is a annual membership but Costco has one to and the discounts their really arent that great.
Here two barrols of oil will pay membership.

[cheapskidoo]

As a farmer and an agronomist there are a few things I have to point out:
First is that markup on our fert and chem is nothing special. We make from 5-8% on our fertilizer and maybe 10% on our chem with the blackbox payments.
Second is that we do not favour any chem reps and I sure as shit don't promote products because of a rep. I push a product which is the biggest bang for the buck or which suits the field conditions depending on what the customer wants.
I think that retailers are blamed for the prices of inputs when really we are the middle men, the problem is what Sawfly stated earlier, MANUFACTURERS.
It is however true that we give better deals to larger customers, but this is related to buying power and growing one's business.
Also for soil testing we charge $50 which gets you a basic 0-12" test. Anyone can probe their field and send it into Enviro Test labratories for $27. The extra is what we charge to do this service, which I don't think is outrageous.

[cheapskidoo]

Cheapskidoo, so you guys subsidise the large operations buy shafting the small ones?

[wmoebis]

Cheapskidoo;
Please tell me how charging more to the little guy that only buys a half a dozen jugs or so equate into growing your buissness when you give breaks to the guys that pick up pallet fulls? So you charge say $10 per jug more on 6 jugs and cut $10 on say 50? Why not carge $2 more on it all? Would you rather lose 1 big guy or 10 little ones. We little ones have to survive too. If one of us little guys left you you would still have nine customers if one big guy leaves you have none.

Better yet why don't you sell below cost to everyone so we farmers can make it and YOU go whining to the Gov't for awhile looking for support.

[SASKFARMER3]

As an Agronomist I have to say that I feel your pain but that you are maybe one of the only ones that feels there doing some good for farmers.
As for your 10% mark up sorry there is the final check from monsantos the bayers etc on your volume and the dealer knows that if he is short of reaching his goal he goes hard on one product to get him their.
Second if one gets to a certain level their is the Buisness meetings Wink Wink in Cancun Dominican and elsewhere.
So you guys are part of the problem to see how it would be to get to be told by the farmer we will pay you 200 on a pail of chemical right now and then the next year and a half maybe give you the extra 300 but it will depend on how our crop turns out or what happens with the dollar etc.
You would all be out of buisness in less than a week.
STart working for the farmers and not the Chemical and Fert Companys.

[furrowtickler]

Saskfarmer is right, but this is also where the real incentive is to give the big guys the carrots to help their own bonus programs. All I can say is, FNA and Nufarm, hats off to you.

[darren442]

Big farmers get the better prices on everything from chemical to prices at the elevator, It happens and it is true. And things will not change because the dealers are out to make as much coin as they can. BUT now this is were the FNA comes into play and i think the idea is great. I;m not a farmer but i would like to apart in the FNA if i could. I'm an agronomist and i think that things should be the same across the board. I don't give better advice to guys just because they are a larger farmer and give crappy advice to the smaller farmer. What farmers need is as a truly unbiased company for advice and the FNA to sort out the imputs.

[myopinion]

So then explain to me, since a membership costs the same for a small guy and a big guy then when I divide the membership by the number of jugs of chemical I buy, as a small guy do I not have to pay more? Why are chem dealers being singled out as all EVIL, does nobody trust the people they deal with.
It has already been stated that you want to join together to get a better deal. The entire world works this way, Vehicle dealerships, equipment dealerships, and even grocery stores. Cattle producers don't you expect to get a better price for 200 evenly matched steers that if you had a single calf for sale?