Non-farm animals are used to represent stock that are not part of the farm’s own productive system.
Typically, they represent animals brought in to clean up a block for a short period of time or to graze the rows between orchard trees or vines. The feeding, care, and wellbeing of these animals are managed on another farm. Within this model, they are only a mechanism to represent the estimated amount of crop or pasture yield from the block that is consumed during clean-up.
The option to use Non-farm animals is only available when a crop, fodder or fruit block is modelled. In this case, nutrient intake is estimated from the crop or pasture yields on the block to which the non-farm animals have been allocated.
It should be noted that the number of non-farm animals used to tidy up a block may be very different from the number of animals on the farm in the described year. This can be somewhat confusing, and should be considered carefully if non-farm animals are described as having been used in Year 1 of a crop block, but the reporting year has animals within the analysis.
Wherever possible, it is recommended to enter stock numbers and types into OverseerFM, rather than using the Non-farm animals option. This option should be considered a modelling mechanism to represent external animals used to clean up a block over a short period. If the animals remain on the farm for more than about a month and are fully fed and managed on farm resources, it is best to enter their characteristics directly into OverseerFM. This option can also be used for indicative analyses, or as a last resort if no stock information is available.