Kyoto Craziness

Well it is winter down here at the bottom of the world. We've got all the girls (cows) out on winter grazing. At the moment, they're on kale but they'll get shifted to swedes in another couple of weeks. For you Northern Hemisphere people, I know this is weird for you because you milk all year around. We milk seasonally here because our main food source for the cows is grass and it only grows in the spring, summer and autumn. Hence we calve in the spring and dry off in the autumn.
Currently, I'm researching the implications the Kyoto Protocol will have on us as primary producers. My findings so far are a little alarming. Right, here goes:
We milk about 600 cows (in round figures). We will need to pay about $40 000+ per year in "carbon tax" to offset our emissions. The fact our cows graze grass and we don't use any diesel for them to eat is irrelevant. Not to mention that grass converts greenhouse gases as well. Ok, never mind. So, I asked myself, can we avoid the tax by planting trees?
The "tree alternative" is to drop cow number by 200 and plant 200 acres out in trees. In ten years time, I have to drop cow numbers again by 1/3 and plant more trees and so on until, one hundred years from now, we'll have 600 acres of trees and no cows.
We try to be as green as the next guy. In fact, probably greener as we consider ourselves stewards of the land. Surely there must some sort of balance we can achieve between agriculture, feeding the world and environmental awareness.
I would welcome some open discussion on this. As I stated in my earlier blog, the media are reluctant to have balanced debate on the subject. I think this is a hugely important issue as affects everyone.
Until next time, Take care.