Environment Canterbury is implementing an interim solution to respond to the Government’s review of Overseer. Find out how this may affect you.

Science Director Tim Davie said that in light of the review’s findings, it was necessary to develop an interim solution to allow consent processing and Farm Environment Plan auditing to continue with less reliance on Overseer.

“We needed to provide as much certainty as possible to farmers and the community as soon as we could. I am confident that our temporary interim solution, developed with mana whenua* and stakeholders, delivers on this,” he said.

“We now have the means to keep working within our current regulatory framework, without compromising water quality, at least until a new Land and Water Plan is notified in 2024.

“The temporary solution means we no longer rely on Overseer to ensure that nitrogen losses from farms with a nitrogen limit are compliant with their consent conditions, not increasing – and in some cases, reducing.” 

Dr Davie said the interim solution would be easily understood, implementable and auditable (auditors are already working with new guidance); would uphold the intent of the Canterbury Land & Water Regional Plan; at least holds the line on nitrogen losses from farms; gives farms some operational and seasonal flexibility within the set limits; and would minimise costs to the community, farmers and Environment Canterbury.

“For example, we anticipate that we will be receiving more resource consent applications from farmers as a result of these changes,” Dr Davie said. “Unless intensification is the likely result of what they are proposing, the cost to them will probably be similar to the current cost. They can also expect that if their consent is granted, it may be of relatively short duration as we head towards a new planning framework in a few years.

“We acknowledge the challenges farmers and the wider community are facing in the freshwater space, so we are committed to working with them to ensure a smooth transition,” he said.

The fact remains, however, that the amount of nitrogen a farm loses to water is directly linked to significant farm management activities.

The temporary solution will allow us to track and monitor these activities, with an Overseer number being one of several lines of evidence allowing us to do this.

We would advise farmers against making changes to their consented farming systems without strong evidence that they will be able to meet their nitrogen loss limit.

In the meantime, we welcome the Government’s commitment to continue to support Overseer while it looks into providing upgraded and/or next-generation tools over the next 12 months.

Further information

• Find out more about our interim solution.
• Read Environment Canterbury’s response to the report that led to this review.