Who this is for
Anyone building the farm database who has more than a handful of farms to add. You upload a CSV, match its columns to the fields ODOS expects, check the result and import. To add a single farm, use Add a farm instead.
The same file can also create assessments. Give a farm one row per year and you get one farm with an assessment for each of those years.
Before you start
Prepare your file as a CSV. There is no limit on the number of rows.
Your column headings do not have to match ours — you match them up in the Map columns step. What matters is that the file contains a column for each of the following.
Field | Required | What to put in it |
Farm Code | Yes | Your own identifier for the farm. At least five characters, and unique across your account. |
Farm Name | Yes | At least five characters. |
Latitude | Yes | Decimal degrees, for example 53.349. |
Longitude | Yes | Decimal degrees, for example -6.260. |
Region | No | The name of a region that already exists in your account. If the name does not match one, the farm is still imported, with no region assigned. |
Year | No | The reporting year to create an assessment for. Leave it empty and the farm is created without an assessment. |
Decide your farm codes before you build the file. ODOS does not generate them, so agree a format with your team first.
Get the coordinates right. Each farm's country and climate zone are derived from its coordinates, and both affect its results. A pin a few hundred metres out will not matter. A pin in the wrong part of the country will.
To create assessments for more than one year, repeat the farm across several rows — same code, same name, same coordinates, one row per year.
Steps
- In the left-hand menu, select Farm Data, then Farms.
- Select Bulk Upload. The Bulk Upload Farms window opens and works through three steps: Upload file, Map columns, then Review and edit.
- Add your CSV. Drag it onto the window, or select the upload area and choose the file from a folder.
- Select Continue. Your file's headings are now listed on the left, with the ODOS field each one fills on the right. ODOS matches the headings it recognises; use the dropdowns to set any it could not, then select Continue again.
- Review the table. Every row from your file appears with its values, and you can correct any of them here rather than going back to the file and starting again. Select the bin icon at the end of a row to drop that row from the import.
- Check the message above the table. It tells you whether your rows are ready to import — when everything passes it reads All data is valid, followed by the number of rows. If something is wrong, the message says so instead, and you can fix it in the table before continuing.
- Select Import. The button names the number of rows it will bring in, for example Import 3 row(s).
How to confirm it worked
An Import Complete summary appears, counting three outcomes:
- Created — rows that produced a new farm or a new assessment.
- Skipped — rows where the farm and everything in the row already exist. Each is listed underneath with its farm code and the reason.
- Errors — rows carrying data ODOS did not expect.
Select Close, and your farms appear in the Farms list.
Common problems
Rows come back as skipped rather than created. The farm code is already in use and every year in the row already has an assessment, so there is nothing left to add. A row for a farm that already exists but a year it does not have yet is not skipped: it adds that assessment to the existing farm. Bulk Upload never creates a second farm on the same code, and never overwrites the details of a farm that already exists.
Farms import with no region. The region name in the file did not match a region in your account, and ODOS imports the farm anyway rather than failing the row. Create the region, then assign it to the farms afterwards.
A column is not matched at the mapping step. ODOS only auto-matches headings it recognises. Set the rest yourself with the dropdowns — you do not need to rename anything in the CSV and re-upload.