Nearly five million more lambs are needed to fund the government's emissions trading scheme according to Federated Farmers.President Don Nicolson said using the Minister of Agriculture David Carter's figures, he estimated paying ETS costs of $42.9 million
Nearly five million more lambs are needed to fund the government’s emissions trading scheme according to Federated Farmers.
President Don Nicolson said using the Minister of Agriculture David Carter’s figures, he estimated paying ETS costs of $42.9 million would take the profit of 4.7 million lambs.
“The ETS is a massive risk to on-farm profitability and this sum actually doubles what Federated Farmers had projected only two weeks ago,” he said.
The farming lobby group has slammed the government for moving forward on an ETS that includes agriculture, which is widely thought to contribute about half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gases.
Mr Nicolson said Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) modelling shows the average before tax profit for a sheep and beef farm is $39,800. The average cost of the ETS for a sheep and beef farm is estimated as $1475.
“Given the MAF model projects a per-lamb profit of $9.06, it will take the profit from 4.7 million lambs just for us to break even as an industry. That requires a massive 20% increase in the number of lambs produced over the year ended September, 2009.”
Mr Nicolson said given that Mr Carter was also a sheep farmer, he hoped he’d “be attuned to the “wafer thin margins” of the industry.
