Safeguard your yield with crop protection from FBN Direct
When most farmers think about saving money on inputs, they think about price. And FBN's transparent pricing and direct-to-farm delivery are real advantages. But some of the biggest savings in the Farmers First™ lineup come from a different place: products that do more with less, reduce what you haul and store, and consolidate what goes in the planter or spray tank—without giving up yield or performance. Here are three worth knowing about.
If you're running 5 gallons per acre of 10-34-0 as your corn starter, you're hauling a lot of product to deliver a nutrient that often gets tied up in the soil before the plant can use it. Conventional liquid starters have high salt loads, and the phosphorus in most formulations reacts quickly with soil calcium and iron—meaning a meaningful portion of what you apply never reaches the root.
Farmers First™ Inhabit P™ (0-50-0) takes a different approach. Its unique micro-humate/carbon complex keeps phosphorus available to the plant instead of locking it up, allowing 2 quarts per acre to deliver equal yield performance to 5 gallons of conventional starter—a 10x reduction in volume. Across 22 trials in 11 states in 2022, Inhabit P matched or exceeded conventional starter yield 90% of the time. It's also no-salt and seed safe when diluted as directed, applied in-furrow.
10X Inhabit P™ | Less volume than conventional 10-34-0 starter — equal yield performance in 90% of trials across 22 sites, 11 states. |
Pair it with Farmers First™ Zinc EPC™ for a complete in-furrow nutrient package. Zinc EPC uses enhanced peptide chelation—more molecular connection points than traditional chelates—to hold zinc in a plant-available form until uptake. The result: 1 pint per acre of Zinc EPC matches the performance of 1 quart per acre of standard chelated zinc, cutting the volume in half at equivalent cost. The operational savings add up fast: less product purchased, fewer trips to the tender, and less tank space dedicated to your starter program.
Ammonium sulfate (AMS) is a staple in spray programs across the Corn Belt—it conditions hard water, improves glyphosate uptake, and keeps spray pH in the right range for your herbicide active ingredients. The problem is logistics: dry AMS comes in 51-pound bags and goes in at 17–20 pounds per 100 gallons. If you're covering a lot of acres, you're moving a lot of product.
Farmers First™ Even™ DR is a fully soluble, spray-grade granular AMS replacement that combines citric acid and ammonium sulfate into a proprietary blend that outperforms straight AMS on pH reduction. Real-world data from a North Dakota grower with pH 8.3 water showed just 2–4 lb of Even DR dropped water pH further than 17–20 lb of standard AMS—to the ideal range for glyphosate, auxins, and ACCase inhibitors.
5.7X Even™ DR | Rate efficiency vs. dry AMS — 3 lb/100 gal replaces 17 lb of AMS at the same per-acre cost. In 24-lb bags instead of 51-lb bags. |
At 3 pounds per 100 gallons, Even DR works at 5.7x the rate efficiency of standard AMS—with the same per-acre cost at typical spray volumes. And because it comes in 24-pound bags instead of 51-pound bags, it's simply less labor at the tender. Less to load, less to haul, same result in the tank.
Soybean seed treatment programs have gotten complicated. Between inoculants, fungicides, insecticides, and micronutrients, it's not unusual for a grower to be managing four or five separate products before the first seed hits the ground—each with its own application window, storage requirement, and compatibility consideration.
Furrow Flex™ Soy consolidates all of it into a single planter box-applied product delivered via an innovative dry flowable Bio-Capsule system. One pail treats 40 units of soybeans and contains:
Bradyrhizobia inoculant for accelerated early nodulation
Guard M bioinsecticide against seedcorn maggot and other seedling pests
Metalaxyl + Prephyte ST® fungicides for phytophthora, pythium, soil-borne diseases, and nematodes
IonLock™ Zinc + manganese + iron for early emergent nutrition and improved seed singulation
Active Carbon for early-season nutrient availability and uptake
80/20 Talc/Graphite for seed fluency through the planter
The Bio-Capsule design keeps the biological component shelf-stable until you're ready to use it—activate it at the planter, not weeks in advance. That means no guessing about inoculant viability, no scheduling your seed treatment around planting logistics, and one less thing to coordinate with your seed dealer. The protection and nutrition package is complete on its own, which means fewer products to source, store, and apply separately.
Price matters, and FBN's transparent marketplace gives farmers real leverage on input costs. But the Farmers First™ lineup is built around a different kind of value—products engineered to reduce volume, simplify programs, and deliver performance that holds up in replicated trials. Less to haul, less to manage, and results you can measure.
Explore Inhabit P™, Zinc EPC™, Even™ DR, Furrow Flex™ Soy, and the full Farmers First™ lineup at FBN.com/direct/crop-nutrition.
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL DIRECTIONS. This content is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional agronomic advice. Product availability may vary by region. Trial results may vary depending on geography, soil type, and agronomic conditions. See FBN Direct for current product listings and pricing. All trade names are the property of their respective owners.