He has been in the industry for about 40 years and employs three full-time staff to help him run 600 cows on his dairy farm.
If the proposed increases go through, his ACC bill would reach $6000 a year for his staff alone.
A 70% increase was proposed for the livestock farming rate, taking the levy from $1.97 per $100 to $3.35.
Costs were being compounded, from doing business to owning land and employing staff, he said.
"So many costs get thrown at us, it takes the gloss off the industry."
Mr Holmes thought farmers were being "lumbered" with such a steep increase because farms were thought of as risky places to work.
However, many accidents which happened on farms were not work-related, he said.
"I'm suspicious that the statistics are actually skewed wrongly."
If a person visited him and sprained their ankle, any claim to ACC would class it as a farm accident because of where it happened.
Also, hobby farmers did not pay livestock farming levy rates but could claim any accidents on their farm as farm-related, he said.
He hoped Federated Farmers would "point out some of these anomalies" to the Government.
"I certainly hope they get modified. I think the whole thing needs to be looked at and redrawn."
Otago Federated Farmers president Michael Lord said the increase was "certainly significant".
He, too, thought it came from the belief farmers, in general, were a higher accident risk because they worked with livestock and machinery.
Traditionally, farmers had struggled to get ACC payments because if they were injured they had to prove a loss in profit and most farmers were forced to keep working at a lesser level with their injury, he said.
If the proposed increases went through, they would have a "significant impact" on farmers as they were both self-employed and employers.
The Government has published a draft Bill to enact the ACC changes announced on Wednesday but it is still looking for the support it needs to get it through a first reading in Parliament.
ACC Minister Nick Smith confirmed yesterday he was discussing the Bill with other parties.
At a minimum, he needs backing from either the Maori Party or Act New Zealand to have a bare majority on the Bill.
Dr Smith also apologised for saying that if he was terminally ill he would throw himself under a train because his family would benefit under ACC's current policy.
One area to be scrapped under the proposed changes was compensation paid to the families of those who commit suicide.
If someone with a family committed suicide, the family could have been given almost $1 million in compensation over time, Dr Smith told reporters gathered to hear about the ACC changes.
"If my doctor told me that I was terminally ill and I had 30 days to live, with the ACC rules the way they are, I'd be finding myself a train to throw myself under on the 29th day because my family would be treated so much more generously," he said.
Yesterday, he apologised and said his comments were an "unfortunate analogy".
