When a farm account is set up in OverseerFM, the Farm Location requires a physical address to be entered. When this is typed into the address field, the software uses the information typed to provide address options from a Google menu. The software then auto populates the Nearest Town and/or Region. If the system can associate a nearest town for the address entered this will be auto populated. If the address is not associated with a nearest town, region will be auto populated. If the address doesn't include information recognisable to a region the software will require the user to locate the farm with the pointer on the map.
Selecting the correct region for your farm is important because it sets model defaults for a range of values, especially around climate.
While monthly rainfall and PET are determined by the location of the blocks, The selection of Nearest Town and/or Region sets the climate patterns used to distribute daily rainfall, PET, and Sunshine hours for the farm and determines typical seasonal climate variations. Climatic variables are critical inputs, which affect drainage and therefore nutrient losses.
The region is the average of the nearest towns in that region. For this reason, we recommend choosing a nearest town if it has generally the same conditions or region if there is not a nearest town to the farm location.
If your farm is close to a regional boundary, select the region that best reflects your farm.
Note: Farm region and Nearest town are set up when the farm account is created and are then locked. If they are wrong and you need to change them, please get in touch with Helpdesk. Changing the farm location (region or nearest town) at any time could change outputs from the model.
For Benchmarking purposes, your farm is automatically assigned to the territorial authority (i.e. Regional Council) regions across New Zealand based off the location of the Farm Account location pin (under Farm Settings. The Benchmarking regions are: