Environment Canterbury responds to Overseer review
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 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 Environment Canterbury to track and monitor these activities, with an Overseer number being one of several lines of evidence allowing us to do this.
They advise farmers against making changes to their consented farming systems without strong evidence that they will be able to meet their nitrogen loss limit.