NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Farmers, tractors and cows clogged central Wellington, New Zealand, Thursday venting their anger against a proposed "fart tax," according to a report in the New Zealand Herald.

The government wants to raise about $8 million a year from farmers, an estimated average of $300 a year each, to help fund research into mitigating agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.

Federated Farmers president Tom Lambie, saying farmers would never pay a "fart tax," presented a petition signed by 64,136 people protesting the proposed tax.

"There is genuine concern about unrealistic taxes," Lambie told the protesters. "Over 64,000 signatures show the level of concern".

The petition was tangible evidence that not only farmers but all New Zealanders are worried about the potential effects of the Government's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the Herald said.

Some 400 farmers, about 20 tractors and a similar number of utility vehicles, cars and farm bikes paraded through Wellington streets before gathering for a lunchtime rally outside Parliament.

Early in the rally, one of two cows taken on the rally was led up Parliament steps by National MP Lockwood Smith.

The shouting farmers drowned out Science Minister Pete Hodgson as he told them there was potential for agreement on the increased voluntary levies for greenhouse gas research.

The farmers also drowned out Associate Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor as he told them government funding of research on methane emissions from livestock would risk overseas perceptions of a return to subsidies, the Herald said.

But though Lambie said there was a concern that the government had stopped listening to farmers, discussions in the past two days with Science Minister Pete Hodgson and Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton had given "greater recognition" to current industry research into greenhouse gas emission from animals.

"More discussion is needed, but at last the focus is where it should have been all along," Lambie said, adding the farmers had earned the right not to be exposed to unrealistic government policies, the Herald reported.

"We hope that recent discussions on research will make any threat to tax evaporate," he said.