Australia-Drop in farm incomes.

AUSTRALIUA-DROP IN FARM INCOMES.

new study shows cattle property cash incomes could be cut by more than 60 per cent once agriculture is included in the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme (ETS).

The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation report looks at the economic impact of the ETS on farm businesses.

The report’s author David Pearce says even though agriculture will not be included in the scheme until 2015 at the earliest, farm costs will rise before then due to costs increases elsewhere in the economy.

"Just because it is costly is not an argument in itself against the inclusion of agriculture," he said.

"What this report does, is it quantifies those costs, but it is designed to provide an indication to farmers of the sort of pressure for adjustment so that the farm sector in general can start to plan for these changes."

He says beef farmers will be the hardest hit in the agricultural sector.

"It’s potentially a significant cost, simply because as currently measured any activities involving livestock is essentially substantive emitters," he said.

"So for example, with a carbon price of around 25 dollars per tonne, that could potentially lead to an increase in costs of beef farmers of up to 20 per cent."