You are James Campbell, patriarch of Campbell?Lessing Farms. The Campbell Lessing farms are two multi?generational farms, owned by you and your wife, Sue Lessing Campbell. You have run the Campbell farm since the death of your father 32 years ago, and the joint farm since Sue inherited her half at her father’s death 29 years ago. It took you some time to get the hang of running the farm, and to be honest, you really struggled when your two boys were younger, but in the past ten years you have doubled the size of the operation. Your farm and crops are at a consistent level. You feel that you have maxed out your production levels, based on the fact that crop levels have remained fairly consistent over the past 5 years. Before the boys went away to college, you weren’t focused enough on growing the size of your sorghum operation. But you have since focused on expanding your sorghum fields and with the return of Joe, your oldest, you could focus on crops, while he focused on the cows. You really enjoy working with Joe and your dream would be to have Andy return to the farm so you could work with both of your boys. You feel there is a lot you could teach both Joe and Andy about running the farm.
Andy and his wife, Charlene, are coming home to Perryton this weekend for Sue’s birthday. You know that Andy is considering several offers for employment with various reputable companies. He worked for Monsanto in Dallas before he went back to Texas A&M for his Master’s degree in Agribusiness. You know that he enjoyed that job, and Monsanto would be foolish to let him work elsewhere. He does have two other offers that you know of, one with Cargill in Minnesota, and one with DuPont in Tulsa. You can’t imagine why he would want to live in Minneapolis, but he seems genuinely interested in the job. He and Charlene did live in Dallas, so Minneapolis would be similar, albeit colder. The job in Tulsa seems to fit the couple more. Charlene’s parents live in Oklahoma City, which is a short drive from Tulsa, so you imagine Charlene is pushing for Tulsa. Charlene has travelled extensively, even living in Italy for a job one summer, but you suspect that deep down she is an Oklahoma girl at heart.
Your goal for this meeting is to bring Andy back home. You and Sue have put your life into these farms. You believe that Andy has always thought about returning to the farm someday. Your goal is to lead the operation for the next ten years. After that you will leave the operation to the boys. Since you are still a young man – only 55 years old – you want to maintain operational control of the farm for the next ten years. Sue has been your bookkeeper all your life, basically. She is 54 years old and you feel that the two of you can maintain and grow the operation successfully for another ten years. In fact, you don’t know what you would do if you didn’t have the farm. Your most important issue is to maintain control and train your boys to run the farm when you retire at 65.
Over the years you have made the farm a profitable enterprise. This year has been an unusual year for you. Your total operating profit was positive at $270,000. However, you have had to modernize some equipment and you are in the fourth year of paying off a land purchase. For these reasons, you have an operating loss after taxes of almost $100,000 (see attached financial disclosure). While you don’t get rich with the operation, you rarely have operated under a loss. Profits are modest, but have tended to be positive year after year.
You pay Joe well for the cow?calf operation. He gets gross pay of $3000 per month. In addition, you and Sue have built Joe and his family – he has three kids – a proper house on part of the family land. They had been living in a doublewide trailer. It was fine as a starter house, but the kids are getting older and the trailer is getting too crowded. Additionally, Joe gets a new truck every four years. This is important, as he needs the truck to maintain the cattle operation.
You believe that Andy would not be likely to return to the farm for the same pay that Joe is getting now. His education commands a higher salary. You are willing to pay Andy $3500 per month, gross. This may necessitate giving Joe a raise, but you hope that you can keep the amount under your hat, so Joe doesn’t get bent out of shape. Of course Andy and Charlene can move into the doublewide now that Joe and his wife Sara have moved out. You don’t suspect that they will be there long, as they will likely inherit Bob and Alma’s house when Bob dies. Alma was particularly fond of Charlene and you suspect that Andy and Charlene will be the beneficiary of the home at
Bob’s death. Of course Andy will need a truck as well; he has had his current truck for over 6 years and has put a lot of hard miles on it. In order to keep up on the crop operation Andy will need a new truck. Anything that you provide to Andy will come out of the profit, as will any extras that Joe might demand to maintain equity. You are willing to reduce your compensation, just as long as you can work together with your boys.
You are even willing to raise Joe’s pay to keep him happy, although you have heard stories that make you believe this may be ill?advised. Friends tell you that Joe is spending a lot of time at the Lucky Star Casino east of Elk City, Oklahoma. You know that Joe is always short of money, but you have assumed that it was because the kids were growing and demanding more from the monthly budget. You can only hope that Joe is not squandering the money you pay him on gambling. You have even heard one rumor that while in Elk City, Joe is visiting some girl that he knew in college.
You hope that’s not true. You are very fond of both of your daughters?in?law. While Charlene has always been special to you, Sara has always been a good mother to your grandchildren. She makes a special effort to have them visit you and Sue and is generally a sweet girl. But these are just rumors. You know Joe and can’t believe that the rumors are true. Joe is your oldest son and has been a trusted part of this operation for many years. You have a lot of confidence in his ability and couldn’t imagine running the operation without Joe. You want your youngest son to come home, but you have been very happy running the operation with your oldest son.
You suspect that Andy and Joe could run the farm as a team. Joe has a good knowledge about the cow?calf operation, and Andy is very knowledgeable about the crops. You know that the two haven’t always agreed in the past, but for the good of the family farm, they will likely put their differences aside. They are brothers after all. Your desire is to have a joint leadership position in ten years, shared equally by your two boys.
An appraisal on the land conducted last year set the value of it at $1,152,000. This is your legacy. You want to hold this farm in one piece until you or Sue die, and at that time, parcel it out to the boys. Andy will likely get the irrigated land, as he will make the most of it with his knowledge of the crop operation, and Joe will get the dry land to maintain his cattle operation.
Your most important issues are bringing Andy back ? which you are willing to reduce your personal compensation to do ? and maintaining control of your farm.
Questions
What are the issues to be negotiated?
What are the priorities among the issues in the bargaining mix?
What are the primary underlying interests?
What are my limits on each issue - walkway points and BATNAs?
What are my target point and opening requests on these issues?
Who are the important constituencies to whom I am accountable?
What do I know about the other negotiator's interests, negotiating style, and personal reputation?
What overall strategy do I want to pursue?