Pastoralists say comments by the Federal Climate Change Minister, Greg Combet, show he has no idea about the implications the carbon tax will have on their livelihood.

Mr Combet has told the ABC that farmers are entitled to pass increased costs associated with their tax onto their customers.

The WA Pastoralists and Graziers Association's Rob Gillam says that is impossible.

"Quite simply, farmers are price takers; we're in a very, very weak position when it comes to stipulating the price," he said.

"We've always been price takers and not price makers and as much as we would like to receive more for our products there's no way we can enforce it."

Mr Gillam says the carbon tax is likely to hit farm gate prices.

"We're secondary recipients of the costing," he said.

"It'll be passed down to us and quite frankly we'll see a further erosion of our net farm gate prices and that'll mean that the margins that farmers work on will be narrower than ever."