Detail, not more words, is needed if the government is to deliver its vision for the future of farming after Brexit, a national association has said.

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents landowners, farmers and rural businesses, has expressed disappointment over the “unanswered questions” left following publication of the consultation on future farming policy by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The long-anticipated paper is the precursor to promised legislation that is needed to manage the transition of the UK’s farming industry out of the EU and the Common Agricultural Policy.

Will Bond, chairman of the CLA Dorset branch committee, says questions set out in the consultation, such as how to manage an effective transition and how long it should take, are ‘sensible’ but leave ‘no time to adapt’.

He said: “Agricultural cycles are long - a minimum of a year for arable crops, and longer for livestock. But we are leaving the EU in only a year and this consultation is about what happens then. The questions are sensible and important, but there will be no time to adapt, no time to plan. The industry needs the government to commit to maintaining the present systems until there has been a reasonable time to react. If not, otherwise viable businesses will run out of cash, and jobs and careers will be unnecessarily lost in Dorset and elsewhere. “

CLA president Tim Breitmeyer says the industry can do better than the current EU farming policy, but certainty and time to plan is needed.

He said: “That is what we were promised and instead we have open questions, few decisions and no answers. Love it or hate it, the EU has shaped the way we farm, provided most of our customers and been a source of vital income for thousands of businesses. Our businesses can thrive outside the EU but we need to make plans, to adapt where necessary, and to invest where possible. We will be asking ministers for urgent answers on when they will deliver this. In a few months the government will bring forward legislation that will set the direction for the next generation of farming and land management. It is the detail, not the words, that will define farming’s future and this is still seriously lacking.”