THE 3 BEST WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR COSTS ON CROP PROTECTION PRODUCTS THIS YEAR ARE:

1. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CHEAP FINANCING OFFERS

2. CASH IN ON REBATE PROGRAMS

3. SELECT PRODUCTS THAT ARE EQUAL OR BETTER THAT COST LESS MONEY

I have been talking about this non-stop for the past four months with farmers and agronomists. You may not need a finance program. In the past, finance offers may not have saved you much money.

TODAY, THIS IS A REAL THING AND SOMETHING THAT, IN MY OPINION, EVERY SINGLE FARMER SHOULD TAKE ADVANTAGE OF.

On our farm in November, we already locked in our products and captured cheap financing from several different companies.

BELOW IS A QUICK LIST OF THE MOST ATTRACTIVE FINANCE OFFERS TODAY, RANKED IN ORDER OF LOWEST TO HIGHEST INTEREST RATE.

Please check with your Hefty agronomist to get all the details of each of these programs, but they are all pretty simple.

MY MOST IMPORTANT POINT IS THIS – FINANCE YOUR PURCHASES NOW BECAUSE CHEMICAL PRICES GO UP 1% PER MONTH OR MORE, MEANING YOUR NET COST WILL BE LESS THE SOONER YOU LOCK IN YOUR PRODUCT AND THE FINANCING.

FMC: 0% APR through Sept. 1 if financed by Sept. 1, $10,000 minimum

VALENT: 0% APR through Sept. 1 if financed by Sept. 1, $5,000 minimum

BASF: 1.99% APR through Nov. 30 if financed by Mar. 15, $5,000 minimum

SYNGENTA: 3.9% APR through Dec. 15 if financed by Aug. 31, $10,000 minimum

BAYER: 3.9% APR through Nov. 30 if financed by Aug. 31, $10,000 minimum & two products minimum

AMVAC: 4.25% APR through Nov. 30 if financed by Jan. 15, $2,500 minimum

AGRALEND: Prime plus 1.25% APR through Feb. 1, 2025 if financed by Aug. 31, $10,000 minimum; this financing is offered for all products at Hefty Seed Company

CORTEVA: Prime minus 1% through Dec. 1 if financed by Mar. 1, $5000 minimum; but you give up half of your 10% rebate, so unless I’m missing something I would not recommend using this finance offer unless you have no other options

One of the advantages you have in working with us here at Hefty’s is we take care of the rebate paperwork for you so you don’t miss out on any rebates you are eligible for.

LAST YEAR, OUR CUSTOMERS EARNED MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN REBATES!

No, I’m not exaggerating that number. These rebate programs are massive, and you want to make sure you get what should be coming to you. While I expect you will see more programs out yet this winter, and I won’t list every single option below, here are some of the rebates I think you should take a look at. When you factor in the dollars available, it could change which products you buy, as some of these programs may lower the cost on a specific product by 25% to even 50% in a few cases.

WITH ALL THESE REBATES, PLEASE VISIT WITH YOUR HEFTY AGRONOMIST FOR COMPLETE DETAILS OF EACH PROGRAM.

BAYER: WE BELIEVE BAYER PLUS WILL ONCE AGAIN BE THE LARGEST CROP PROTECTION REBATE PROGRAM IN THE HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE.

You can earn rebates of $0.50 per acre all the way up to $6 per acre. As a general statement, the more Bayer products you buy, the higher the amount per acre. For example, if you purchase an equal number of acres of TripleFLEX, Harness MAX, and DiFlexx for your corn plus Warrant Ultra for your soybeans; if you want to buy a Bayer fungicide next summer, you could get $5 per acre back on that fungicide. Plus, you could get $1 per acre off your Roundup and $2 per acre off several Valent herbicides including Fierce, Mauler, Select Max, and Valor EZ.

CORTEVA: Their TruChoice program is very complicated to administer, but the good news is it is a 10% rebate off most Corteva crop protection products IF you get them locked in by the end of February. You could earn a rebate on later purchases, but the safe bet is just to get everything booked this winter so you know it’s done.

BASF: At Hefty’s, we are offering a number of rebate programs that involve BASF products. For example, for wheat, dry beans, and canola-growing areas, we have rebates of $0.60 per acre up to $3 per acre for matching BASF products. In canola, it involves Endura, Priaxor, Stamina, and Teraxxa. In dry beans, we’ve got a program when tying Varisto to Basagran, Endura, or Sharpen. In wheat, it’s Zidua plus either Beyond Xtra, Distinct, or Sharpen. There are a few BASF products in our Hefty Corn Rewards and Hefty Soybean Rewards programs below, as well.

HEFTY CORN REWARDS: Earn up to $3 per acre when matching Hefty Brand corn acres to certain crop protection products, including Xyway, Veltyma, Outlook, Zeal, Steward, Vantacor, and Maverick. Since each product can separately match up with our corn, you could earn $6, $9, or more per acre!

HEFTY SOYBEAN REWARDS: Earn up to a maximum of $17.15 per acre when matching Hefty Brand or Zinesto Brand soybean acres to the following categories: Authority brands, FMC foliar fungicides, Revytek, and Liberty.

We have hundreds of products you could choose from, since we work with every major ag chemical manufacturer we know of. In other words, we have lots of options for you, many of which could be as good or better than what you are currently using, and some of those could be less expensive. I will cover just one example of something for you to consider going into next year – comparing Trivapro to a tankmix of Priaxor and Tilt.

While we love Trivapro, we also love Priaxor plus Tilt, but look at this comparison based on the new pricing we’ve gotten this fall.

TRIVAPRO: Contains the active ingredients found in Tilt, Quadris, and it has benzovindiflupyr as an active ingredient.

PRIAXOR PLUS TILT: Contains the active ingredients found in Tilt, Headline, and Xemium.

The Tilt is obviously equal. Many farmers we know prefer Headline over Quadris. In terms of the third component of each, I prefer Xemium, but that one we could debate about. My point is simply this: many farmers I will talk to would prefer Priaxor plus Tilt to Trivapro, but even if you consider them equal, Priaxor plus Tilt (or generic propiconazole) is roughly $7 per acre less at our stores today vs. Trivapro. Again, I like Trivapro a lot and if you stick with that I have no issues at all, but we like to present options to you, since we have so many farmers who ask us to present alternatives that are less expensive.

We spend a tremendous amount of time with our agronomists in training so they can help you make the best agronomic and economic decisions for your farm. Between finance offers, rebates, and selecting different products, you may be able to save thousands this coming year, yet have as good or even better yields.