Farmscoper
Farmscoper is a decision-support tool to assess diffuse agricultural pollutant loads on a farm
It can also quantify the impacts of farm mitigation methods on these pollutants. The farm systems within the tool can be customised to reflect management and environmental conditions representative of farming across England and Wales. The tool contains more than 100 mitigation methods, including many of those in the Defra Mitigation Method User Guide.
Farmscoper was originally developed under Defra project WQ0106. Under Defra Project SCF0104, it was expanded to include additional pollutants and two new workbooks. One workbook provides greater detail on the costs of mitigation method implementation. The other permits the tool to be applied at catchment to a national scale.
New updates in the latest version
Under Environment Agency and Defra funding, the latest version (v5) now includes up-to-date climate, agricultural survey and farm management data.
The updated greenhouse gas (GHG) calculations closely match the latest UK Agricultural Ammonia and GHG inventory.
The installation package includes new documentation on applying Farmscoper at smaller spatial scales.
Download Farmscoper for free
Farmscoper V5 is free to download; however, you will need to enter your name and email address. We will use this information only for the purposes of keeping in touch with any updates. We will not share your information with third parties.
For details on how we secure your personal information, please read our privacy notice.
Help and guidance
Our tutorial videos were created for version 4 but are still relevant to version 5.
Cautionary note
The information in the FARMSCOPER software is for guidance purposes only. It is not intended to fully substitute professional agricultural advice. Users are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and completeness of all data entered and used by FARMSCOPER, and for any commercial decisions taken based on any of the outputs of this software.
Unlike previous versions, v5 does not require installation. Users can download and place the files in any desired directory. Please note, no icon will appear in the Windows Start Menu or on the desktop.
- An Introduction to Farmscoper Presentation(34MB)
- Guidance and Help Presentation (14MB)
- Modelling Presentation (45MB)
- Farmscoper Setup (10MB)
- Help available within Farmscoper (11MB)
- Calculating Baseline Pollutant Losses for a Farm (71MB)
- Customising Farm Systems (64MB)
- Calculating Impacts of Mitigation Methods for a Farm (89MB)
- Specifying Current Mitigation Method Implementation (89MB))
- Modifying Mitigation Method Impacts (41MB)
- Optimising Mitigation Method Selection for a Farm (72MB)
Derivation of Mitigation Method Costs (68MB)
- Customising Catchment Data (38MB)
- Calculating Baseline Pollutant Losses for a Catchment (68MB)
- Analysing Mitigation Methods for Part of a Catchment (45MB)
- Guidance for applying Farmscoper at Small Spatial Scales (2 MB)
- Changes in Input Data (3.29 MB)
- Description (2 MB)
- Guidance for the Assessment of Mitigation Method Implementation