But the Opposition warns that agriculture is about to be hit with the equivalent of a killer tax from day one of the scheme, and says it's time farmers start making some noise.

Agriculture is not expected to feature too heavily when Federal Minister for Climate Change, Penny Wong, releases the Government's emission reduction targets because the sector won't be considered for coverage until 2013.

But the Opposition's Andrew Robb, who is helping leader Malcolm Turnbull on emissions trading, says leaving agriculture out of the scheme has farmers believing they won't be affected once it starts next year, which couldn't be further from the truth.

Mr Robb is off to America at the end of next week to investigate the merits of a voluntary carbon reduction scheme and see the mechanics of the Chicago Carbon Climate Exchange, which has been trading permits for emissions for several years he said.

He said he is bothered agriculture won't be considered to be part of the scheme from the start, and thinks the Government is rushing its introduction when there was clearly still a lot of design and research work needed.

"On the face of it it sounds like agriculture's not affected by an emissions trading scheme, but that's quite wrong," Mr Robb said.

"The cost of electricity going up will indirectly affect all agricultural industries.

"The estimate in the dairy industry, depending on the price of carbon at about $20 a tonne, is an impost somewhere between $50 million and $80m a year from day one, 2010, which is the equivalent of $6000 per dairy farm on average.

"That impost would have to be absorbed by the farmer, with no chance for offsets."

Mr Robb said this would cruel agriculture unnecessarily when there was a lot of evidence to suggest the opportunities for carbon abatement at the farm level are enormous.

"In the US they're even selling credits with farmers that undertake to rotate cows through fresh pasture for a season because it's been proven to reduce burping by up to 70pc."