Selwyn Times: September 01, 2021
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SELWYN RURAL LIFE<br />
Wednesday <strong>September</strong> 1 <strong>2021</strong> <strong>Selwyn</strong> <strong>Times</strong> 31<br />
Farmers feeling vindicated<br />
on Overseer<br />
‘We told you so’, farmers are saying about<br />
an Overseer critique.<br />
Farmers the length of the country have<br />
long-accused regional councils of overreach<br />
in their use of the Overseer Nutrient<br />
Management Modelling Tool.<br />
OverseerFM is used by councils all over<br />
New Zealand as the basis for granting<br />
consents, checking compliance and<br />
enforcement against farmers. Across<br />
the farming kaleidoscope of <strong>Selwyn</strong>,<br />
Overseer has spurred all sorts of on-farm<br />
changes, from livestock systems to crop<br />
management.<br />
Federated Farmers environment<br />
spokesperson Chris Allen, from upcountry<br />
Ashburton, said the foundations<br />
of New Zealand’s farm environment<br />
management system had been rocked to<br />
the core by the recent release of the report.<br />
Federated Farmers had been fighting<br />
against the use of Overseer by councils<br />
to define regulations for nutrient<br />
management on farm for more than a<br />
decade “simply because of its lack of<br />
accuracy”. The recent independent report<br />
into Overseer was scathing, he said. “It<br />
basically says Overseer should never have<br />
been used for anything other than general<br />
on-farm nutrient use management.”<br />
Despite this, more than 6000 farmers<br />
were “strictly regulated by Overseer”, while<br />
another 5000 must do Farm Environment<br />
Plans with Overseer nutrient budgets.<br />
This number included drystock, dairy,<br />
horticulture, arable and other farmers.<br />
Environment Canterbury (ECan) chief<br />
executive, Stefanie Rixecker, said Overseer<br />
was used extensively in Canterbury to<br />
model nutrient losses from land uses and<br />
in the regulatory framework.<br />
“It is important for our consenting,<br />
compliance monitoring and enforcement,<br />
and farm environment plan auditing<br />
processes,” she said. “Our Resource<br />
Management Act plans and consents<br />
use Overseer - together with farm<br />
environment plans and independent audit<br />
- to maintain or improve water quality by<br />
minimising nitrate-nitrogen losses.<br />
ECan now needed time to consider the<br />
review so we can be clear about how these<br />
processes may be impacted, but meantime<br />
welcomed the Government’s commitment<br />
to continue to support Overseer while it<br />
considered how to provide “upgraded and/<br />
or next-generation tools” over the next 12<br />
months.<br />
Dr Caroline Read, chief executive of<br />
Overseer Limited, said OverseerFM was<br />
proven in its ability to support farmers<br />
and growers make more informed<br />
decisions about their farming practices<br />
that help improve their environmental<br />
performance.<br />
“The extensive feedback from farm<br />
system experts and researchers using<br />
OverseerFM for more than 15 years,<br />
including the 12,000 farm businesses<br />
currently in OverseerFM, shows that<br />
while it’s not perfect, the tool produces<br />
results consistent with current scientific<br />
understanding and farm practice,” she<br />
said.<br />
OverseerFM’s strength was that it<br />
provided farmers and growers with a<br />
“common platform for engaging on farm<br />
nutrient management” including with<br />
their regional council, irrigation scheme,<br />
processor, farm consultant and each other<br />
through catchment groups. The tool was<br />
doing what it’s designed to do. “It provides<br />
farmers and growers with a comparable<br />
estimate of the risk of nutrient losses<br />
based on their farm management<br />
approach, allowing them to assess how<br />
efficiently their farm systems use the<br />
available nutrients and how changes in<br />
farm practices could affect N-loss risks,”<br />
Dr Read said.<br />
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