Farmers Business Network thinks the deal is good news for farmers.

“The work that AgraCity did to build their portfolio of products and labels will still be available to farmers going forward,” said Breen Neeser, FBN’s general manager for Canada.

“They have some really good products.”

He is happy that the AgraCity assets are staying in the hands of an established western Canadian company that has been in the agriculture business for a long time.

“They know farming,” he said.

“They’re partners with farmers.”

Why it Matters: Generic farm chemicals are becoming more widely used in Western Canada and elsewhere.

Neeser believes UFA was keen on expanding their footprint in Saskatchewan.

“I think that was part of the play,” he said.

He is pleased that the assets did not end up in the hands of a foreign entity.

“UFA is part of the fabric of western Canadian farming, especially Alberta and in some ways Saskatchewan now,” he said.

“I’m glad it’s in the hands of somebody who sees the business the same way.”

Five other bidders vied for the AgraCity assets during the creditor protection sale process, but FBN was not one of them.

“A lot of what AgraCity had to offer, we already have,” said Neeser.

“There wasn’t that much that we haven’t already found a way to access, so it didn’t have the same appeal to us as it did to others.”

FBN is also expanding its asset base. The company recently opened warehouses in Brandon and Grand Prairie, Alta., which will augment its other warehouse in Saskatoon.

The Brandon warehouse is almost fully stocked with product, while the Grand Prairie facility is in the process of being filled.

The company had previously been using third party providers in those two locations.

“This gives us a little bit more control on timing of deliveries,” said Neeser.

“We have more of our own people and we have more of our own trucks, so we fully expect to operate at a higher efficiency than we’ve ever operated at before.”

The company is building two new product distribution centres.

The warehouse in Brandon is scheduled to open Sept. 1, 2025, while the one in Grand Prairie, Alta., will begin operations on Jan. 1, 2026.

Those are two big growth markets for FBN. The company had been working with third party warehouses but decided to take more control of product distribution.

“We think that we can grow the business on our own faster and better by doing it ourselves,” FBN general manager Breen Neeser said during an interview at Ag in Motion 2025.

Follow all our Ag in Motion coverage here

FBN has a big warehouse in Saskatoon, another in Yorkton and one in Langley, B.C. that it is in the process of selling.

The two new distribution centres will stock all FBN’s agricultural product line.

Neeser said the expansion is not related to competitor AgraCity announcing that it was having cash flow problems, but it hasn’t hurt the project.

“We’ve been able to hire a couple of their former salespeople,” he said.

FBN is also in the process of expanding its crop input offerings beyond agricultural chemicals.

The company recently launched six bulk liquid fertilizer products.

FBN had already dipped its “toe in the water” with its Pro Ag fertilizer products, which were distributed through the Langley warehouse.

However, this is a new venture with a Saskatoon company that manufactures fertilizers for pre-seed and post-seed applications.

Neeser said it is way better to be working with a company in the heart of the Prairie region than attempting to do it from a distance.

“The fertilizer business is freight sensitive,” said Neeser.

“You can only go so far on a truck before you market yourself out on cost.”

The company is selling both nitrogen-based and phosphorous-based products.

“They’re all blended fertilizers,” he said.

Nigel Buffone, senior director of crop protection with FBN, said the company has not forgotten about its core business, launching 10 new crop protection products and co-packs for wheat in 2025.

FBN is attempting to provide farmers with the closest thing to pre-mix products by using its manufacturing facilities to package products together in case sizes such as 40, 160 and 320 acres.

Those co-packs are designed to make life easy for growers, eliminating the math.

Buffone said the company is identifying successful herbicides and bringing those products to its members.

“I think in the cereals market, we will have a solution for every acre next year,” he said.

Neeser said the next venture for the company will be livestock products.

“We’ll probably dip our toe in the water this fall and get into some of those,” he said.

According to the Canadian Ag Chem Price Transparency Report from the Farmers Business Network (FBN), prices are the lowest they’ve been in years. With market pressures mounting and a potential tariff war with the United States looming, FBN’s general manager of Canada, Breen Neeser, is urging farmers to take advantage of current pricing before the spring rush.

“Pricing has come down to historical lows and has been for the better part of the year,” he said.

“Growers should probably take advantage of them; prices are probably unlikely to stay there.”

Because of the dynamics of the Canada-U.S. marketplace, it’s difficult to predict exactly how a tariff war might affect pricing, but the fallout would almost certainly result in price increases. But even if tariffs don’t materialize, Neeser expects prices to rise.

“The base raw material costs that make up the cost of a crop protection product are increasing,” he said.

“So product manufacturers have two choices. They can either eat that decrease, or they can turn around and say, ‘I’m not doing this anymore,’ and they’ll make it less available.”

FBN is a membership-based farm chemical and agricultural input supplier based in the U.S. FBN Canada was launched in 2017 and now has more than 9,000 members in Canada. The group began publishing its Canadian Ag Chem Price Transparency Report in 2018.

Price variation

The report analyzes prices at various ag retailers across the Prairies, and it often identifies a wide variance in the prices farmers pay for the same product, depending on the retailer.

According to this year’s report, the variation between the highest and lowest price paid has narrowed compared to last year. For example, Liberty 150 SN saw a 74 per cent gap between the highest and lowest in 2024, but this year, the variation dropped to just 41 per cent.

But while the variation has narrowed, 41 per cent is still a big discrepancy, and even with lower prices, farmers need to shop around for their products.

Neeser noted that making those purchasing decisions can be complicated for farmers, and it is sometimes difficult to know what they’re getting.

“When you walk into a retail at any time from now through the spring, you often will get the retail’s kits for their solution to your weed problem, and it’s very hard to figure out what may be in that solution,” he said.

“Our particular approach is to be transparent. The grower has control; you decide for yourselves.”

Are generics the answer?

Neeser is also fairly transparent in acknowledging that, as a supplier of generic crop protection chemicals, the company’s annual pricing report also acts as a marketing tool for FBN’s products. However, he points out that FBN isn’t the only generic supplier in the ag chemical space.

“We have our own competitors,” he said.

“We think we’re doing our bit for farmers, and to some degree for ourselves. But the truth is, we’ve been part of the reason the major crop chemical prices have come down.”

Indeed, the increasing number of generic chemical suppliers has intensified competition.

“What we’ve seen with older formulations and formulations that have generic competition is that those generics have pushed down the prices,” said Manitoba Agriculture farm management specialist Darren Bond.

He says FBN’s transparency report is a useful tool for farmers, especially now when margins are so tight. However, he said farmers should exercise a little caution when it comes to generic products. He pointed out that while some of the newer formulations do cost more, it’s usually because they add some advantage to the producer.

“It might be a wider range of weed control, or maybe a wider control window. There’s some sort of advantage to the producer with the newer formulations,” he said.

Chemical trait stacking was introduced in response to the emergence of herbicide-resistant weeds, allowing farmers to spray a wider variety of chemicals in order to manage tougher-to-control weeds, such as kochia.

“So while the glyphosate may be relatively cheap, we’re using a few extra chemicals in our tank mix to control these harder to control weeds,” he said.

“If you can control a wider range of weeds, all things being equal, you’re probably going to pay a little bit more for that technology.”

It should be noted that generic distributors, including FBN, also market products with stacked traits. FBN lists its products next to the branded equivalents on its website.

Generic chemicals enter the market once the original product’s patent expires, usually 12 to 20 years after the initial registration. In order to register a generic product, a manufacturer must ensure that the active ingredients are as good or better than the original.

In the end, it’s really about the return on investment.

As well, Neeser says FBN’s goal is to provide its products at a competitive price, even within the generic space.

“Even if you have that active ingredient that’s equal to or better, it has to be a price that’s worth that grower to switch,” he said.

“You have to believe it’s going to do everything for you and it’s going to be at a price difference that makes you move at your feet.”

However, Bond advises that before making that switch, producers should seek impartial advice from sources they trust.

“I think it’s important for producers to consult with their agronomists, their economic advisers and their trusted retailers to understand the differences between generics because not all generics are created equal,” he said.

“I think generics can offer good value, but I also think producers should have an understanding and a comfort level with the quality of that generic product.”

Johnston’s Grain is telling its clients that the crop inputs are at rock bottom prices.

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“When adjusted for inflation, we’re at by far the lowest prices we’ve ever seen on glyphosate 540 and glufosinate 150,” the company said in a daily email to customers.

Manufacturers of the products are telling Johnston’s that there is no money in making the chemicals at today’s price levels.

“We’re hearing from many manufacturers that they are likely to shut down production until margins improve on many of these products,” said the crop input retailer.

Johnston’s said it is not trying to scare its clients into buying the products.

“What we’re saying is … downside price potential is extremely limited,” the firm stated in its email.

“Upside potential is quite high.”

The company is concerned that prices could swing in a hurry in the current volatile geopolitical space.

“We would prefer to see our clients buy one to two years supply of these products at the all-time lows rather than the all-time highs,” Johnston’s stated.

Alberta Agriculture tracks farm input prices. Its latest data shows that farmers paid $73.57 for a 10-litre jug of Roundup WeatherMAX liquid in August.

That is down from $98.69 a year ago and the recent high of $166.81 in December 2022.

Herbicides are the second biggest variable expense for most wheat and canola farmers, according to Saskatchewan’s 2024 Crop Planning Guide.

In fact, in some soil zones, it even takes the top spot away from nitrogen fertilizer.

Breen Neeser, Canadian country manager for Farmers Business Network (FBN), said retailers have been reluctant to purchase big volumes of the herbicides in the current environment.

“If you’re in a declining market and you have a bunch of inventory, then you lose a lot of value,” he said.

That is exacerbating slumping demand for the product. However, he believes the market has bottomed out and he agrees with Johnston’s that there is a greater likelihood of prices rising 15 per cent than falling by the same amount.

“I don’t think there is much question that it’s a really good value right now,” said Neeser.

He is not 100 percent certain if the market is in balance or if it is short of product.

However, he suspects it might be short because inventories are low on the farm and at the retail level and there has been some curtailment of production, so that could result in higher prices if the demand is there.

That is why he believes growers should seriously consider buying a portion of their anticipated needs for the 2025 crop.

However, he stopped short of advising them to purchase two years of supplies because farm cash receipts are down and margins are thin, so growers might not have the cash available for such a big commitment.

Neeser said there is no real herbicide-buying window. He has seen farmers stock up in July, September or November.

The decision is primarily price driven, although there are other considerations. For instance, glufosinate requires heated storage.

FBN has a crop input sale that runs between Nov. 1 and Dec. 11.

“We’re really excited about the winter months and our position in the market,” he said.

Neeser does not anticipate that today’s low herbicide prices will have any influence on what crop gets planted in the spring of 2025.

However, he does think farmers will be less likely to cut corners when applying the products to their crops.

On Aug. 19, ADM and FBN announced plans to expand a platform called Gradable and operate it as a 50-50 joint venture.

“Gradable is rapidly becoming one of the industry’s leading and largest technology platforms enabling sustainability scoring at scale,” said Steele Lorenz, Gradable’s chief executive officer.

FBN created Gradable in 2020.

The online service allows buyers to find sources of “environmentally friendly grain,” says the Gradable website.

“Gradable helps (grain) buyers work toward their environmental goals…. The platform connects buyers to farmers and allows them to preserve the outcomes of sustainably produced grain, from the field to end products.”

Purchasing grain that’s grown in a more sustainable manner has become critical for agri-food companies and food manufacturers.

Most corporations have sustainability goals and publish detailed reports on how they’re achieving those objectives. The sustainability plans have targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. A crucial piece of the reductions are Scope 3 emissions, which includes suppliers such as farmers.

“Scope 3 emissions are the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by the reporting organization (or business),” says the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition of Scope 3.

An example from crop production is nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas related to nitrogen fertilizer. Food and ingredient companies want grain growers to cut N2O emissions on the farm so that they can reduce the Scope 3 emissions in their supply chains.

“The demand for sustainably produced crops is increasing steadily, driven by consumer preferences, corporate commitments and initiatives, and public policy,” says the ADM/FBN news release about Gradable.

“For grain buyers, Gradable provides reliable farm-level data, allowing them to easily identify and purchase (sustainable) grain.”

So far, Gradable says it has more than 20,000 farmer users covering more than 12 million acres.

The platform generates more than “$30 million in financial incentives for sustainable practices each year.”

Having ADM on board should expand use of Gradable because the company has annual revenues of nearly US$100 billion and is one of the largest ingredient and nutrition companies in the world.

ADM and many other grain buyers are encouraging farmers to try regenerative agriculture, which is loosely defined as practices that improve soil health.

Regenerative practices include reduced tillage, diverse crop rotations and planting cover crops to improve soil fertility.

“ADM’s regenerative agriculture efforts enrolled more than 2.8 million acres last year, and we know that’s just the beginning,” said Greg Morris, president of ADM’s ag services and oilseeds business.

“The continued expansion of this work requires a strong technology platform that enables farmers to easily participate and provides farm-level data for grain buyers and end customers.”

Contact robert.arnason@producer.com

“If we have a nice harvest period, we have the potential for having a close-to-record crop on the Prairies this year,” said MarketsFarm analyst Bruce Burnett.

That observation is based on a recently completed 3,500-kilometre crop tour of the three Prairie provinces.

His trip missed some key areas such as northwestern Alberta’s Peace district, but it covered most of the main grain growing regions of Western Canada.

The cereal crops looked particularly stunning.

“Both spring wheat and durum are a lot better than they were last year, especially durum,” Burnett said during an interview at the Ag in Motion farm show held last week near Langham.

Durum yields are estimated to reach 44 bushels per acre, an 18 bu. improvement over last year.

Using Statistics Canada’s June acreage estimate and average abandonment would result in a crop of 7.4 million tonnes.

“That’s a big recovery in the durum crop,” he said.

It would be the second largest in the past 10 years, ranking behind the 2016 crop.

Spring wheat yields are pegged at 57 bu. per acre, which would be 10 bu. higher than last year and a new record for Western Canada.

Spring wheat production is forecast at 27.8 million tonnes, a 3.4 million tonne improvement over last year.

“The biggest surprise to me in spring wheat was the lack of disease in the crops,” he said.

“With all this wet weather, I thought we’d see a lot more leaf diseases.”

Most of the fields he walked were “very, very clean.”

Burnett isn’t the only analyst forecasting a bumper crop.

Stephen Nicholson, global sector strategist of grains and oilseeds with Rabobank, recently toured the Prairie grain growing region with a contingent of Australian farmers.

“There’s unbelievable looking crops,” he said.

He spoke to several Canadian producers during the journey.

“They’re all saying, ‘this looks like one of the best crops we’ve ever produced,’ ” said Nicholson.

Growers are thinking it will rival, if not exceed, the big crop of 2022.

Breen Neeser, general manager of Canada for Farmers Business Network (FBN), agrees that crops are in good shape halfway through the growing season.

FBN is forecasting a one to two percent increase in yields over last year in Alberta and four to seven percent in the rest of the Prairie region.

“That means all the work and all the money (growers) spent putting the crop in the ground was well worth it,” he said.

Input costs are at the low point of the five-year cycle, crop prices are still historically high and yields are up.

“That’s a recipe for a good year,” he said.

Farmers could be in for some of the best financial returns in years.

Breen said wheat seems to be the standout crop this year.

“I’m no expert, but as you drive by, the density on some of the wheat fields is obviously very (good),” he said.

However, he is concerned about the recent run of hot weather and the forecast for more of the same.

“We’re in that period where it’s either going to stay great or it could start to trend off a little bit,” said Breen.

Burnett agrees that the heat forecast for the second half of July is worrisome, especially for south-central Saskatchewan, where there is not much remaining soil moisture.

This year’s canola crop is a tale of two planting dates. The early-seeded stuff looks fantastic. It is just coming off bloom in the south and in full bloom in the central and northern Prairies.

Late-seeded canola in wetter areas is poorly established and is struggling with the excess moisture.

He is forecasting an average canola yield of 42 bu. per acre, about five bu. better than last year.

Using 21.9 million acres and average abandonment, Burnett is forecasting a crop of 20.6 million tonnes, a 2.3 million tonne improvement over last year.

Barley yields are forecast at 74 bu. per acre, up 12.6 bu. from last year. Production is estimated at 8.1 million tonnes.

Burnett did not have yield estimates for pulses, but lentils are looking fabulous, and he saw a lot of nice looking pea crops.

“Generally speaking, the pulses look very, very good,” he said.

He did not see much disease, but farmers were actively spraying their pulse crops.

The bottom line is that there is a bumper crop on the way barring any big catastrophic weather event.

“This has been an excellent growing season this year, especially given how dry it was and how concerned we were about drought,” he said.

“I absolutely think growers should be pouncing,” said Joel Merkosky, president of Johnston’s Grain.

“If I was a producer and I was sitting on a solid cash position, I’d be looking at booking one- or two-year’s supply of these products at these prices.”

Johnston’s was selling glyphosate and glufosinate for $5.79 per litre delivered to the farm as of Jan. 18.

“It’s the lowest that we’ve ever seen on either product,” he said.

Canola farmers spend about the same amount on herbicides as they do on nitrogen fertilizer, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture’s 2024 Crop Planning Guide.

Breen Neeser, Canadian country manager for Farmers Business Network (FBN), said growers have been reluctant to pull the trigger on chemical purchases this year.

“Even though (prices) are historically low, there hasn’t been a stampede to buy,” he said.

He spoke to growers at Saskatoon’s Crop Production Show and Brandon’s Manitoba Ag Days who told him cash is tighter this year than it has been in a while.

“There’s a fairly strong indifference to pay up and load up the shed full of those products,” said Neeser.

However, he worries that growers who are pushing back their usual January-February purchases to April-May could be in for a surprise.

Suppliers are not willing to take on a lot of excess inventory in today’s high interest rate environment.

“I can tell you that our company is not going to take risk on ‘maybe’ purchases,” he said.

That means that the chemicals might not be there when growers decide it is time to buy.

“We’re sort of in a game of chicken,” said Neeser.

“Growers are saying, ‘I won’t spend money, I believe it will be there when I need it.’ And companies are saying, ‘no damn way.’ ”

His advice to farmers is to lock up 70 to 80 percent of their needs and gamble on the remainder.

Growers shouldn’t drag their feet past mid-February because the supply chain for agricultural chemicals is long, and anything ordered past then might not make it to Canada in time for spring fieldwork.

Merkosky said today’s glyphosate and glufosinate prices are much less than half of the pandemic peak of $13.50 per litre.

Prices soared due to plant closures in China and sky-high ocean freight rates of $15,000 per container, which was 10-times the pre-pandemic level.

Today’s shipping rates are $2,000 per container by comparison, and that is up from a few weeks ago due to tensions in the Red Sea and restricted traffic on the Suez Canal.

Merkosky said manufacturing plants in China are eager to produce big volumes to make up for the downtime during the pandemic.

“They probably overproduced what we needed to supply the North American market,” he said.

“That drove prices down sharply.”

However, he warned all it will take is another health scare or more geopolitical turmoil to get prices heading back up again.

Merkosky said the market appears to be well supplied with product today, but he too worries about what might happen if growers wait until April or May to buy.

Chinese New Year starts Feb. 10 and lasts 16 days. Production will be curtailed during that time.

That means it will be “a race against the clock” to get product to North America in time for those farmers holding off on their purchase decisions, he said.

Neeser said prices are either flat or down for all the major chemicals that FBN sells, but the declines are most pronounced for glyphosate and glufosinate, two staple crop inputs for most farmers.

The company was selling glyphosate for $5.71 per litre and glufosinate for $5.81 per litre as of Jan. 19.

He doesn’t think there is much room for prices to drift lower.

“There is now a market force here that’s driving a bunch of different programs to get off the ground,” said Kurt Alles, head of sustainable business at Farmers Business Network (FBN).

The company is working with Archer Daniels Midland on the grain company’s re:generations regenerative agriculture program.

The program was launched in 2022 in the United States, where it enrolled 1,900 growers and covered 1.2 million acres of cropland.

The two companies intend to expand the program in 2023 to 3,000 farmers, including 150 Canadian growers.

FBN is providing its digital farm business management platform, called Gradable, which allows growers to submit their sustainability information. The company then translates it into “outcomes and claims” that will be passed down the supply chain.

That information allows ADM and farmers to collect the voluntary and regulatory rewards that now exist in the supply chain.

“Gradable is a key enabler in our efforts to help producers improve their bottom lines, strengthen farm resiliency, meet growing global demand for more sustainably sourced products and help pave the way to a more sustainable future,” Greg Morris, president of ADM’s ag services and oilseeds business, said in a news release.

In Canada, the information will be used to calculate a carbon intensity score for canola.

FBN members who register for the program will be able to lock in a five cent per bushel premium for participating and another two cents if their score falls below a specific carbon intensity benchmark.

“This announcement really is a demonstration of the formalization of these markets,” said Alles.

Farmers are finally starting to get paid for conservation practices such as cover crops, reduced tillage, nitrogen efficiency, soil health and reducing crop inputs.

He noted that many companies now offer regenerative rewards programs that take a lot of “different shapes and sizes.”

“Find the program that fits best with your operation, has requirements that makes the most sense for you and that provides the best rewards,” said Alles.

Growers participating in the FBN/ADM program will deliver their canola to ADM’s crush plants in Lloydminster, Alta., or Windsor, Ont., or to its primary elevator in Watson, Sask.

Alles said one of the biggest challenges in running sustainability programs is balancing scientific rigor with a data collection process that is not too onerous for the farmer.

“That is what is going to facilitate scale in this market and provide farmers with the best experience,” he said.

Farmers will spend one to 1.5 hours providing data, split between an initial information-gathering phone call and a follow-up call where all the data is submitted and organized on FBN’s website.

Growers will be asked to provide information on fertilization, yields, tillage practices, cover crops and other conservation practices.

FBN has been conducting grower surveys each year of the program.

“We have over 95 percent satisfaction with our program,” said Alles.

“It’s really easy for farmers to participate and submit the information to meet the requirements to receive the rewards in the program.”

In the U.S., the two companies are offering programs for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and peanuts.

FBN is also working with other grain companies on similar sustainability initiatives.

The company has not set any long-term targets for participation in the ADM project by its 9,300 Canadian members.

Contact sean.pratt@producer.com