By Brian Hefty
So far this year, many products are out at lower to significantly lower prices than just a year ago. This list includes Liberty, Roundup, Durango, Touchdown, Harness, Surpass NXT, 2,4-D amine & ester, Banvel, Clarity, Equation fungicide, Status, Keystone LA NXT, TripleFLEX II, Sharpen, Spartan Charge, WeedMaster, and more!
Here’s the number one reason why I’m telling you this today. Each year we suggest you re-look at everything you do on the farm. Every single expense (or investment) should be scrutinized. In some cases, you will find that products you’ve used in the past went up at the same time commodity prices went down. If those products barely paid for themselves before, the odds aren’t good that they’ll pay for themselves this year. On the other hand, some things you haven’t normally used because they’re “too expensive” might look great now. For example, many people have talked about cutting their fungicide use, but did you know that a half rate of products like Equation (generic Quadris) for soybeans and corn is now less than $3 per acre? Tebucon (generic Folicur) at the full rate is around $2 per acre, and that used to run $15 less than 10 years ago.
The other thing you’re going to see more of in 2016 is rebate programs. I know you hate them just like I do, but let’s face it – if a company is willing to give you $2 off a $10 treatment, that’s huge. Take the money. At our Winter Workshops, we’ll give you the details to every company program out there so you don’t miss the chance to save even more money on certain products this year.
Finally, consider some of the finance offers out there. Several companies have zero percent finance offers, but be sure to read the fine print. Some of those offers cost you nothing. They just require you to buy multiple products. Other offers force you to give up cash discounts, which means you could be paying far more in “interest” than what your local bank would charge. By the way, we suggest you shop around for good bank rates, as many banks have far better offers than the finance offers that retailers or manufacturers have. I know that banks have tightened their credit policies a little bit, but they still have lots of cash they want to loan out to good farm operators.
I know that if you are a crop farmer you would like higher commodity prices, but the good news is many of your input costs, including fertilizer, are coming down in price.