SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Hundreds of farmers from all over KELOLAND are in Omaha this week for Farmer 2 Farmer. It’s an annual gathering for the Farmers Business Network, but the first time they’ve held it in person since the pandemic.

“Farmer 2 Farmer is where we bring the whole network of FBN to life, that network consists of 55,000 farms from around the U.S., Canada and Australia,” Farmer Business Network co-founder Charles Baron said.

It’s a big change from where the Farmers Business Network began eight years ago with a handful of farms.

“FBN has grown enormously, we’re nearly 1000 employees, now we now have over 32 logistic centers like Larchwood all over the United States as well to be able to support farmers,” Baron said.

The Larchwood, Iowa facility opened in August, with FBN adding even more employees from KELOLAND to their team this past year.

“We recently expanded with the purchase of a company Prairie Livestock Supply in Worthington, Minnesota, their team and the Worthington campus is now a part of FB,” Baron said.

Those team members and the farmer members of FBN are at the conference this week to learn the latest developments in the industry from some of the leading experts in the field. But the Farmer to Farmer event offers more than education.

“Also to take care of business, so they can take advantage of lots of early buying and zero percent financing on inputs,” Baron said.

It’s a chance for farmers to get a jump start on ordering their inputs for the next season.

“There’s a lot of special deals being offered throughout the next 3 or 4 days, growers are going to want to check into that,” an FBN executive said.

And in a year where input prices and interest rates have skyrocketed, FBN says their transparent pricing is attracting more buyers than ever before.

“FBN has a very simple approach for farmers, we have 1 price, we have transparent pricing, no negotiation and things like 0 percent financing,” Baron said.

At the conference today, FBN leaders also announced a new initiative on regenerative ag finance, launching an up to a billion dollar fund to give producers discounts on their loans for using things like cover crops and nitrogen-efficient practices