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FNA

RSL

Well-known member
Are any of you Farmers of North America members?
They are trying to sell me a membership, and it looks like it might be worthwhile, but our total cash costs are so low, and the cattle products are somewhat limited, I am not sure if it is worthwhile.
They do guarantee that if you don't save the cost of your membership, they will refund it in full.
http://www.fna.ca
 

Grassfarmer

Well-known member
Have looked at it in the past but like you the money we could potentially save would be way less than a membership costs. I support the idea behind them but I have also seen a lot of negative comments about them being "just another input company trying to screw us over" from producers - some members, some not.

Will look at it again this year as we are planning to start growing some silage at home and will need more inputs for this. Last time we had a field sprayed out with roundup - about 7 years ago - we got the "5 colonies combined bulk buying price" on the spray which was a very attractive price.
 

turning grass into beef

Well-known member
I worked for FNA for 2 years starting in 2000. Back then we did not have a lot to offer. I was in sales and I told people straight out that if they were going to purchase a membership it needed to be based on principle, not on how much money they were going to save. Thankfully there were enough people that did. IN THEORY this organization makes absolute perfect sense. The whole idea is to organize farmers from a business perspective (not political) in order to create competiton amongst input suppliers, at the manufacturers level (not the local dealer level). In practice, when I left it was starting to come through on some of its ideas and programs to save farmers substantial amounts of money. My boss (who is no longer with the organization) was not as honest and upfront with me as I trusted him to be and thus there is a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. In my opinion, if you are a grain farmer then a FNA membership is well worth the money. If you are a rancher I don't know how much they can save you simply because the main input for ranchers is feed. We as ranchers do not use nearly as much chemical, and fertilizer as farmers do. Those are the big inputs. We were members for a few years and definately saved our membership fees in those years. One year we got a dewormer under the OUI program that in our opinion worked just as well as ivomec at a substantially reduced price. The next year Ivomec was a lot cheaper. Go figure :wink: I don't know what the membership costs these days as I have not kept in touch with the organization, and I don't know how many inputs for ranchers that are available through FNA. Thus whether or not it would be worth it finacially is somthing that I can't comment on. But you can always join based strictly on principle if you want to.
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
I am not a member but I do know they have a line on North Star livestock equip and RFID readers and scales. I guess if you were in the market it might pay.
 

RSL

Well-known member
We are pretty well looking strictly at fencing supplies and ear tags. I have an RFID reader that I built myself off of Ebay and while we are planning to rebuild our chute system this summer, it is planned to be out of belting, rather than the prefab trendy stuff.
I don't think we use enough oil to get our money back. We might join as we are planning to build a house and may save a bunch on plumbing/heating, and we might price out a post pounder as ours is nearly done, and a wheatheart rings in at $16000 to start.
They don't seem to have a lot of livestock products as of yet. Maybe they should build a processor and sell custom processing at a discount...
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
RSL want me to check out pounders up here-the Co-op sells their rental units-wheathearts-every year for a pretty good discount. I was looking forward to a visit last wekend but I crashed and burned after the first hockey game. Just about hjad to phone you for a piipewrench to get my chemopump off lol.
 

RSL

Well-known member
LOL. Could have brought my jackall.
We are kind of perusing, and in no hurry to buy (read - I am cheap). Knowing prices never hurts. I damn near had a heart attach when I was in Regina and heard the price of a new unit.
The guys were all gung ho on the self propelled unit, and told me I wouldn't even have to start my tractor to fence. I asked them how the HE#$ I would drive it 10 miles to get to the fence in the first place. Total price $24000. I think that may be more than $1 per post for every post on our whole farm.
 

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
I actually helped test out that self propelled deal-you can tow it too your fence project than basically walk behind it while an orbit motor pulls it along-it works well but more a custom fencer unit.
 
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