GUIDE: Planning and Preparing for Your Discussion

At age 70, Marisol did not expect to be attempting to learn the ins and outs of farming in the Northern Great Plains from her home in South Carolina. But that’s just what she found herself doing after receiving word that her aunt Donna had left her 3,000 acres of crop ground in central Montana.
   Donna and Marisol had not been overly close, and the news came as a surprise. Marisol knew just a few pieces of the story of the Montana farmland. Donna had farmed the land with her husband until his death several years ago when she decided she’d rather just lease it out to Ralph, a farmer with a large operation based nearby who was always looking to expand his acreage.
   There are a couple features of the arrangement that Marisol would like to change. Ralph and Donna had a handshake lease and Marisol would like that lease to be in writing. Marisol has also researched average lease rates for the county and the state and knows that the rate Ralph is paying is substantially below average.
   She would like to have a discussion with Ralph to address her concerns. But she is finding herself quite anxious about that discussion. She knows little about Ralph but knows he is a large acreage producer with a lot of farming experience. But her own experience as a research librarian has helped her gather information on farming, leases, and negotiation itself. She feels that setting some guidelines for their discussion in advance will help her to feel more comfortable, more adeptly share her perspective, and gain information with which she and Ralph can build a solid lease agreement.
   Marisol believes it is time to begin thinking about planning the actual discussion, after taking time to work through the questions explored in “Negotiation in Agriculture: Questions to Answer Before Meeting” on her own. An informal pre-negotiation dialogue can help increase comfort by setting appropriate expectations and making the actual conversation more efficient.

To learn more about Negotiation In Agriculture materials and for ideas on where to begin see: Negotiation.FarmManagement.org

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