A ribbon-cutting ceremony in November officially opened a Farmers Business Network Direct distribution center in West Helena, Ark.

The FBN, an independent national network of over 9,000 member farms encompassing nearly 34 million acres, has access to chemicals, fertilizers, seeds, technical services, and wide variety of ag-related marketing and financial services.

"FBN started in 2014 with a small network of growers in the Midwest who wanted to share their regionalized data among themselves," says Cotton Rohrscheib, field executive, FBN. "Our goal is to democratize information and leverage the demand of our network to decrease a farmer's input costs. We have increased our footprint in the Mid-South and the opening of this 43,000 square foot warehousing facility strengthens that footprint significantly."

Many FBN staff members are farmers, grew up on farms, or have some connection to farming. "Since increasing our presence in the Mid-South, our network has members who grow cotton and rice," Rohrscheib says. "Now we have data available to our Mid-South farmer members on seed, agronomics and farming practices specific to this region. "Through our F2F Genetics Network seed brand, we eliminate layers in the traditional seed value chain that bring growers closer to the seed breeding sector."

The F2F Genetics Network currently offers corn, soybean, and alfalfa seed. Traited corn varieties through Master Farmer and sorghum through Warner Seed are also distributed. FBN members can integrate their member account to John Deere, but an established MyJohnDeere account is required. "Our members may also transfer their data to Precision Planting or Field View," Rohrscheib says. "We also support most types of planting, fertility, spray, and harvest monitor files."

The FBN business model incorporates the premise that as a new farmer joins the network, each member's seed information, agronomic analytics, and FBN's overall buying power strengthens.

For more information, log on to: www.fbn.com.