Calculation of weighting coefficients Bookkeeping farms are larger than average. Usually, profitability on larger farms is better than average. Therefore, average results calculated directly from the results of bookkeeping farms give a better-than-reality picture of the profitability of different types of farming for the whole of Finland and its various regions. The profitability of average Finnish farms can be calculated from the results of the bookkeeping farms by weighting them with farm-specific weighting coefficients. When calculating the average results, the size of the weighting coefficient calculated for each farm indicates the farm's significance in the calculation of the average result. In this way, average profitability is ultimately calculated from a set of farms whose distribution of farm size and type of farming corresponds to the actual structure of farms with an economic size of over 15,000 SO euros in each region. In most cases, the share of smaller bookkeeping farms increases and the share of larger bookkeeping farms correspondingly decrease, meaning the latter receive smaller weighting coefficients. The weighting coefficient calculated for each bookkeeping farm describes the number of farms that the bookkeeping farm represents in its own region, type of farming, and farm size class. If, for example, there are 40 similar farms, the bookkeeping farm receives a weighting coefficient of 40, and its results are included in the average calculation 40 times. There might be only 20 farms belonging to a larger farm size class in a region, in which case the bookkeeping farms belonging to that size class receive a weighting coefficient of 20. Through weighting, a set of farms is created for each region using the bookkeeping farms, the volume and structure of which correspond to the region's actual number of farms and farm structure. The average profitability is then calculated based on this set of farms. The total number of farms represented in each group is shown in the report tables on the row "Farms represented". In weighting, the representativeness calculation is done by groups. The grouping is based on region, production type, and farm size. The production type is based on the branch of production classification, and the farm size is based on the economic size classification. The regional classification utilizes the regional division chosen by the user. If, for example, the user has selected ProAgria Centres as the regional classifier for the report, the weighting coefficients are calculated by ProAgria Centre. If the user does not select a regional classifier for the report, the subsidy area classification is used. The user has a vast number of tables to choose from, generated with various combinations of classifiers. The weighting coefficients are calculated dynamically every time a report is generated to correspond to the classification chosen by the user. It would be impossible to produce them in advance for all the possible combinations of classifiers a user might select.
