The head of Queensland's peak rural lobby group AgForce says the science is not settled on climate change as he criticises New Zealand's plan to reduce agricultural emissions.
New Zealand farmers have worked with government on a proposed farm-level levy system as an alternative to the industry being included in the country's emissions trading scheme.
Queensland AgForce chief executive Michael Guerin said he was "horrified" by the plan.
"By its very definition it's a process of continuous learning, so climate change is real [but] it's coming from a number of sources, the scientists tell us.
"There are a lot of examples where things have been decided in the past where [they have] changed their mind with updated science."
He said his personal views on climate change did not affect the work he did in his role representing the state's farmers.
"What I do is represent now about 6,500 members, and through a committee process represent their collective views into the core issues," he said.
"There are various views about where climate change comes from, but there's an unanimous view that we want to work collaboratively and productively with science and with government in some of these issues."
Climate change 'very evident'
Sunshine Coast farmer Kerrie McMartin, a member of Farmers for Climate Action, said climate change had significantly affected her family's operation.
"Just because it's not your reality it doesn't mean it's not somebody else's reality," she said.
Ms McMartin runs a mixed horticulture and sugarcane farm at Bli Bli that grows lychees and custard apples commercially, and has a small pick-your-own strawberry farm.
"Dad's been here for 77 years and he's seeing a lot of changes. The patterns that you would see over a period of time, they're changing, the temperatures are changing," she said.
She said the farm on the Maroochy River has lost one paddock to salt inundation and one of its dams was "very vulnerable".
"They used to dry farm, everything. They would grow watermelon, they grew green beans everywhere, and nothing was irrigated."
Now irrigation was required, and temperature changes had increased pests.
"Our summer bugs are now all-year-round bugs, so we now have to be spraying all-year-round," she said.
More to be done
She said the agriculture industry was "quite proactive" on emissions reductions, but there was more to be done.
"I actually think what they're doing in New Zealand is a result of desperation. They desperately want to change the narrative of what is actually happening," she said.
"They're willing to do something. I think that's amazing, and it should be applauded."
Ms McMartin said even smaller emissions cuts were beneficial.
"We use a lot of chicken manure on our farm, so it cuts down our superphosphate and our urea, and fossil fuel fertilisers."
"I'd like to see government really step up and not just go OK, we've got until 2050 to sort this out. I'd like them to start sorting it out now."
Carbon sequestration in cattle
Mr Guerin said agriculture was the only industry in Australia that had made a tangible reduction in net emissions since 1995, but he acknowledged there was more to do.
He said grazing animals contributed to carbon sequestration and a new project, AgCarE (Agriculture, Carbon and the Environment), demonstrated that much of Queensland's cattle industry was positive sequesters.
"Our view is that we need to continue to work in that vein because the broader community all have the same ambition, which is to look after the planet [and] leave in a better state for next generation," Mr Guerin said.
