Relación Educadores NAJ

Chapter 5.2 summarises how the 25 interviewees in the Finnish data commented on their relation to the three entrepreneurial skills (see sheets 2-4 in Appendix 1). The analyses and groupings were done from the perspective of self-presentation, i.e. by analysing how the interviewees presented themselves in relation to these skills; atten- tion was thus paid to the variety and use of rhetorical resources that the interviewees applied when presenting their skills. The results are presented in three main categories, according to the strategic orientation of the farm; the 25 cases consist of 8 conventional production cases, 7 value adding cases, and 10 non-food business diversifi- cation cases.

In the categories the logic and order of the case comparisons are similar: the first cases are such, where the most convincing presentations of oneself as having skills and being good at their utilisation are made; the last cases are such, where the presentations of oneself as having skills and being good at their utilisation are less convincing, for one reason or another. The only exception in this respect is the category of Conventional cases, where the cases are further divided into sub-categories according to the presented conventional farming strategy, i.e. ex- pansion, cost-reduction orientation and absence of strategic control; the gradation of the cases from most con- vincing presentations to less convincing are done within these sub-categories.

5.2.1 Conventional (C) cases

The first sub-group includes the gradation of the cases where an expansion strategy is articulated during the presentation; the second sub-group includes the gradation of the cases where a cost-reduction strategy is articu- lated during the presentation; and the third sub-group includes the gradation of the cases where an absence of strategic control is articulated during the presentation. The gradation of the cases within these subgroups is based on the diversity and richness of the rhetorical resources used in the making of the presentation.

Presenting oneself as having the skills in connection to production and also to some marketing/sales related decisions; skills attached strategically to the expansion of production

Case 11: A 40 year old male farmer, focusing on pork production Skill 1

The farmer emphasises the importance of planning and writing things down when thinking about future chal- lenges, alternatives and possible solutions. He says that their farm does not have any written business plans, even though they have thought out plans for their farm. When they started pig production, pigs were a natural choice. Their buying of the farm was characterised mostly by planning of practical things; other lines of production or business have not been thought about much since then. They have doubled their pig production since the start, and are possibly going to continue the expansion in the future also. The farmer claims that good production skills are the basis and prerequisites upon which the expansion of production must rest. He also says that it is important to succeed in the production of one’s own forage, since the forage costs have quite a large effect on overall profitability.

The farmer does not mention any written plans as a resource when presenting his strategic planning skills; he nevertheless emphasises the importance of planning and also of written plans. He presents his planning skills by using the context of production as a resource: the expansion of production has been based on the proper man- agement of the production activities, both for pig and forage production. Planning skills are thus related to the possibilities to expand existing production, but mostly from the perspective of production activities.

Skill 2

The farmer assesses himself as being pretty good at networking and utilising contacts: “Well, I would believe that I am pretty good.” He mentions examples of co-operation between other farms, e.g., joint use of machines, con- tracting. In addition to that, he has been active in initiating farm co-operation in an EU funded project, thus demonstrating his abilities to launch networking among farmers. He also claims that he has created good con- tacts to abattoirs, and has recently changed the purchaser of pork. Furthermore, he is active in positions of trust, e.g., in the local farmer’s union.

The farmer provides a direct self-assessment and presents himself as having the skill of networking and utilis- ing contacts, and as being pretty good at it. He is also able to appeal to several resources when presenting his skills. He gives examples of networking and contact utilisation in the context of production co-operation be- tween farms, where he has had the role of an active initiator; he has created satisfactory contacts to abattoirs and a purchaser; his work in the farmers’ interest group provides another resource to describe networking, even though he only mentions it briefly.

Skill 3

He does not directly assess how good their farm is at recognising and realising opportunities; he says that it is often difficult to gain enough information in order to be in an ideal position to make decisions, such as invest- ments. When the interviewer asks for examples of recognised opportunities, the farmer tells that he considers his recent change of butcher as a good choice thus far. He also considers their current pig house combination as the most profitable form of pig production at the moment and states that if one is going to continue pig production, it is the best alternative. He says that they have not considered alternatives to add value to the pig meat, such as organic production, since it would require expensive investments and following strict rules. He mentions that they have considered the possibility of arranging production co-operation between pig producers, but have not realised such plans, since the available options, e.g., collective pig houses promoted by the meat processors, tend to narrow down the farmer’s independence and one’s own decision making possibilities.

The farmer does not provide a direct self-assessment, but is able to present some examples as instances of recognised and realised opportunities. His rhetorical resources include changing the butcher in the context of selling, and the selected production method (pig house combination) in the context of production. It is notable that he exhibits abilities to analyse the recognition and realisation of opportunities during his commenting, but he gives arguments mainly for the difficulty of taking up any value adding activities, thereby presenting himself as being aware of risks inherent in many opportunities.

Case 6: A dairy cattle farm, both wife (age 45) and husband (age 41) involved in the interview Skill 1

They start by commenting that they have a strategic plan, the purpose of which is to guide them in the running of the farm, both in the shorter and longer terms. The wife specifies that for example animal breeding choices could be considered as one part of strategic planning, which plays an important role in their production, e.g., when choosing the appropriate quality of milk. The husband adds that it is important for them to keep all production sectors in balance and not to rely too heavily on the development of only one sector; instead they aim to develop both milk and plant production and to take care that for every sector the outputs would match the inputs equally. For such a purpose they utilise written liquidity plans, where the costs are calculated on a yearly basis; they also make a yearly milk production profitability calculation, as a bought service from the local extension service or- ganisation, where they e.g. see the working hours spent and real costs, can compare their farm with the local and national farms in order to see what their strengths and weaknesses are, and learn what needs to be improved.

The farmers mention using and utilising written plans as well, when presenting their strategic planning skills: they utilise both yearly liquidity and milk production profitability calculations. In their commenting they give reasons for utilising planning skills as a rhetorical resource: it guides the running of the farm, helps keep the production sectors in balance and profitable, and indicates the strengths, weaknesses and improvement issues in their production. The choosing of the appropriate milk quality could be interpreted as an example of market oriented planning in conventional production. Strategic planning is thus presented as serving several important functions. The utilisation of the skills is nevertheless mostly related to the production context, i.e. to the planning of plant and milk production, and to the evaluation of profitability and use of workforce. In their planning they also mention their contact to the extension service organisation as a rhetorical resource.

Skill 2

The husband assesses that networking and utilisation of contacts is something that only his wife has taken care of; her wife agrees and assesses her husband as a person who would stay only on the farm. The wife talks about contacts to the dairy, where she knows people personally. She also claims that contacts with other farmers help them to get useful benchmarking information for the development purposes of their farm, including construc- tion work and land prices; this benchmarking information is presented as an incentive to develop the farm. The skill is evaluated as quite important but not as the most important one.

The couple presents their farm as having the skill of networking and utilising contacts: the wife has them, but the husband has not. The central rhetorical resource in this presentation is the use of contacts to the dairy and to the farming population. However, there is no mentioning of a concrete co-operation between farmers, and the contacts are presented as serving only production purposes on the farm.

Skill 3

After the question a silent moment follows, but eventually the wife starts with an affirmative answer: “Well yes, I think we can recognise opportunities well.” She claims that they would not be building a new cow house unless they felt that they had recognised a proper opportunity for them; she states that they have thought about other kinds of opportunities as well, but found out that they do not suit them as well. The husband agrees and says that they have a confident feeling of succeeding by doing things in their way, even though in the media he has en- countered statements saying that it would be impossible to succeed on their scale. They estimate that they should be able keep something like 50 cows, which should be enough for them until the end of their active farming ca- reer. They consider this an important skill, because it is also useful for figuring out what you really want and are able to do, without getting an unbearable work overload. They assume that perhaps they could have managed by keeping the farm on a slightly smaller scale, but outside pressures emphasise expansion strongly; they claim that they nevertheless prefer to play it safe and avoid taking unnecessary risks – they mention that e.g. their neighbour comes off well, even though he has only a dozen cows.

The farmers provide a direct self-assessment of themselves as being good at recognising and realising oppor- tunities; they justify this assessment by drawing on the resource of their production expansion plans (the new cow house under construction). They are also able to use the reasons for using the skill in this way as a rhetorical resource: They present themselves as having realised the suitable opportunity for them in the form of a moderate growth strategy, which should suffice for them until the end of their active farming career, guarantee a safe in- come and prevent the workload from increasing too much.

Presenting oneself as having skills in production; skills attached strategically to the expansion of the produc- tion

Case 2: A dairy cattle farm, husband (age 32) involved in the interview Skill 1

The farmer starts by commenting that they have a business plan, the purpose of which is to guide them in the making of investments and evaluation of the overall profitability of the farm. He mentions that for example ear- lier this year they updated their liquidity plan while planning some new investments. He states that since the major part of their income is received once a year, one has to make some financial planning in order to guarantee the economic balance during the whole year; it also contributes to giving them more confident feeling. He con- siders this as important.

The farmer mentions using and utilising a business plan, e.g. liquidity planning. When presenting his skills, he is able to use the reasons for doing business planning as a rhetorical resource: it guides them in the making of investments and in the evaluation of the overall profitability of the farm. The use of the skill is thus related to the management of production and overall economic balance.

Skill 2

The husband assesses himself as not being good at networking and utilising contacts: “Well, not really.” He goes on to explain that he avoids local farmers’ associations and other kinds of associations, because they would only cause extra work and waste time. He thinks that a small bunch of friends is enough for him: he can utilise and consult his friends for production related activities, they have e.g. contacted friends for advice when planning

and building a new cow house. The husband does not think of this skill as one of the most important ones for himself.

The couple presents themselves as farmers who do not have the skill of networking or utilising contacts. However, the lack of the skill is presented as their own choice: they do not see themselves or their type of farming as benefiting from networks and contacts to local associations; in this sense, the critical evaluation of associations is one rhetorical resource of the presentation. Another resource is the contacts to friends, whose aid and advice is enough for their purposes; anyhow, these contacts with friends are not presented as a matter of contact utilisa- tion skills.

Skill 3

He starts with an affirmative reply: “Well, it is… There would indeed be whole lot of ideas, but it is about the realisation then.” He specifies that since working hours are limited, one is perhaps not able to realise the possi- bilities. He mentions as examples that they have thought about building a separate cow house for bulls and about extending their production buildings; he has also had some ideas about utilising his competence as a welder by initiating some kind of metal work business, but thus far the lack of time has prevented the ideas from proceed- ing into realisation. He has also had some ideas for his own products, e.g. of a machine with which to peel and dry logs; due to the current trend in bio-energy consumption he thinks that there would be demand for such a machinery. He estimates that the realisation of such ideas would require him spending at least one winter for these purposes, but at the moment he does not know whether he is going to try it out some day.

The farmer provides a direct self-assessment of himself as being good at recognising opportunities, even though a lack of time has been an obstacle for their realisation. His rhetorical resources include examples from production expansion plans (the new cow house) and business diversification opportunities (metal work busi- ness and development of a forest work machine). Thus he relates the use of the skill to the contexts of both pri- mary production and other business activities.

Skills attached strategically to the expansion of production, but presentation of the skills tends to remain on a general, speculative level

Case 15: A dairy cattle farm, both husband (age 47) and wife (age 47) involved in the interview Skill 1

The husband replies with an affirmative tone: “Well, of course one has to do some planning, to have some vi- sions, at least in your own head.” He emphasises that one should have a realistic basis for one’s activities. How- ever, he states that he does not have any written plans and he hardly utilises any services for these purposes; in- stead he has the vision in mind and spends time figuring things out himself. They state that basis of their income, including milk prices, has been pretty stable; on the other hand, they say that even the experts cannot predict some aspects of the operation environment and the EU policy itself is so unstable that it is of no use to try to plan certain things too precisely. They state that they expanded their production in 2000 by building a new cow house; they planned the expansion for several years and spent some effort in comparing different production building types, before selecting the current type. Now they are happy with the size of their farm (56 cows) and are not going to grow the production any more. They also mention machine investments, which have entailed some planning, e.g. from the perspective of taxation.

The farmers mention using and utilising plans, but not in written form. When presenting their strategic plan- ning skills they discount the importance of formal plans by utilising the situation of a conventional milk pro- ducer as a rhetorical resource: many aspects of the operation environment cannot be predicted and the basis of their income is pretty stable anyway. The importance of planning is justified by drawing on the resources from the production context: they have utilised planning skills in the expansion of their milk production capacity (the selection and building of the new cow house).

Skill 2

The couple does not present a direct self-assessment concerning how good they are, but they assess that they have enough contacts anyway: “Of course one could have more contacts, but they will do for us, it is always the case that the more contacts one has the better.” The couple tells examples of their networking and contacts only when asked separately. They talk generally about the importance of having good relationships with officials who decide issues that are relevant for the farm, and with colleagues. They also mention that they have contacts and

networking through associations, e.g., through the association for a certain cow breed. However, they do not provide any more concrete descriptions of the content or purposes of networks or contacts, except for stating