Methane tax a matter of when, not if, for all livestock producers, say Kiwis

The former Labor government made a name for itself with the plan to tax farmers according to the size of their land, the amount of livestock they own, their overall production and their use of nitrogen fertiliser in a bid to make a whole-of-economy mid-century net zero goal.

The National Government, which came to power in November, has taken agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme but will still implement some form of a pricing system for on-farm agricultural emissions by 2030.

What livestock producers are more happy with from the new government, however, is the recognition of on-farm sequestration and a plan to allow landowners to earn carbon credits through other forms of carbon capture besides tree planting, for example restoring wetlands.

That is a significant step forward, producers say.

Sheep, beef and dairy farmer Dean Rabbidge, Rabbidge Farms at Wyndham on the South Island, said the methane tax would have added up to a payment of $12,000 to $13,000 a year for his operation.

"What was frustrating us the most was they intended to tax every single gram of methane emitted but made it very difficult to gain recognition or credit for new on-farm sequestration, like riparian plantings," Mr Rabbidge said.

"Due to rubbish technicalities around the way trees were planted, and the age of the 60 to 70 hectares of protected native bush on our farm, it wasn't going to count for anything - all the planting we have been doing would be for nothing."

Ed Pinckney, Jericho Station at Manapuri, believes a tax on methane emissions is only a matter of time - not just for NZ producers but for all livestock producers.

"But we need to get things right from the science perspective," Mr Pinckney said.

"I'm not anti the methane tax but it must be well measured and all decisions science based and any plans must also give farmers the opportunity and incentive to improve our footprint.

"I feel like there's a lot of unsubstantiated claims about the ability to sequester soil and the methane tax was a horse-before-the-cart situation.

"The fact it was not being based on science was what got everyone's back up the most."

Environment legislation was a moving target in New Zealand, very much a case of 'watch this space', Mr Pinckney said.

"For a farm like ours, where there is a lot of regenerative bushland because we have planted more than 100ha of natives, the original legislation was one-sided," he said.

"And the science is not definitive."