Fears about the impacts an emissions trading scheme could have on the local dairy industry recently prompted a large number of farmers to turn out to a protest at Pyree, organised by Tracey Russell.

She said the exemption was “brilliant”, although she admitted there was a lot of information about the exemption offer she had not yet read.

“This is what we wanted,” Ms Russell said.

However, she questioned whether the exemption was always part of the government’s plan, and whether it had been stringing farmers along to ensure they did not claim carbon credits.

From the outset the government said farmers would not be able to claim for carbon absorbed by crops, but most people in agriculture were more worried about the possibility of a cost blow-out through farm animals being charged for the carbon they produced through methane.

With agriculture now exempted from future taxes, “There’s no way we can claim anything back for the good work farmers do and have always done,” Ms Russell said.

With the carbon tax no longer hanging over the heads of farmers, the region’s primary producers had a lot more security when planning for the future, Ms Russell said.

“It’s good that it happened but I still think the government’s up to something underhand,” she added.

Dairy worker Matt Bohman of Sanctuary Point said the agriculture exemption was “the right thing to do”.

“It appears that some commonsense is prevailing,” he said.

However, because he had not seen all the details he was concerned the exemption may depend on other issues or other factors being passed through Parliament.

“If it is exempt then that’s what needs to happen – we don’t need another tax,” Mr Bohman said.

A tax on carbon emissions from farm animals was never included in the emissions trading scheme, however before it was ruled out this week the tax remained a possibility after 2015.

Critics of the government pointed out it had not actually offered the farmers anything, as the tax was never really part of the emissions trading scheme’s plans.

However, farmers would still face higher costs for electricity, fuel, chemicals, fertiliser and processing, according to Nationals Senator Ron Boswell, which would squeeze business margins by thousands of dollars.