The ability to include the effluent treatment polyferric sulphate (PFS) was added to OverseerFM with release 6.5.7 as a beta release, pending an independent science review of the implementation.
This new mitigation helps farmers reduce methane emissions from effluent, supporting their efforts to align on-farm practices to meet both national and global GHG emissions reduction targets.
The new mitigation has already been included into the AIM National Inventory model, and this release enables farmers and their advisors to understand the potential opportunities for the utilisation of this technology at a farm level.
(Polyferric sulphate may be known to farmers and advisors as the "EcoPond" system, developed by Lincoln University and marketed by Ravensdown, more information available here ).
The PFS mitigation can only be applied to “holding pond” and “2-pond+discharge” effluent systems in OverseerFM. Available scientific literature on EcoPond currently only describes the design and experimental testing on dairy cow farms using “2 pond + discharge” or “holding pond” effluent systems. Therefore, the applicability and considerations of this model change are only for these two types of systems. If PFS technology is applied to one of these effluent systems, the mitigation is only applied to the effluent from dairy cows.
Effluent system details are entered within the “Structures/Effluent” screen in OverseerFM when modelling a farm.
There is now a checkbox under the “Management system” labelled "Effluent is treated with polyferric sulphate (BETA)” .
If the user selects this check box it is deemed the PFS technology is being added to the effluent.
If the PFS technology is applied, a new line item will be visible within the farm level nutrient budget “Nutrients added” section which will include the additional sulphur (S), magnesium (Mg), and sodium (Na) which are applied to the effluent:
These additional nutrients will be managed and transferred within the farm system the same as any other nutrient from the effluent system therefore all other existing functionality remains the same.
Please note: The deployment of PFS (EcoPond) in OverseerFM is currently in beta and undergoing an independent scientific review. We apply this process to all new mitigations to ensure transparency, uphold scientific rigour, and provide confidence in the solutions we deliver.