The Intuitive Farmer

Successful farm management is based upon excellent decision making by the farm owner. In practice most decisions are made intuitively rather than the result of careful data collection and analysis, or analysing others'' views and associated factors. Thus the farmer''s intuitive decisions have a major impact on the business practices, efficiency, profitability and success of the farm. In the form of a character driven novel the author guides the reader through a series of lessons for farmers to improve their intuitive decision making. The story follows Ben, a New Zealand farmer, as an important member of a discussion group. The experimental programme is set up by a management researcher, Tom, to explore the best way to improve farmers'' intuition. The farmer group has different characters in different situations each one of which leads to interesting dilemmas and lessons. Each chapter addresses a different issue affecting farmers, such as risk management, benchmarking, budgeting and planning, negotiation skills, active listening and farm ownership. By the end of the novel the reader will have absorbed important farm management principles and practices through the activities and findings of the group. The Intuitive Farmer follows on from successful business management books such as The Goal, which communicate business ideas and strategies in novel form. This is the first such book applied to agricultural management practices, providing a dependable source for farmers, agricultural and farm management students and people involved in agriculture industries.