WITH ALL the talk of Brexit, it is easy to forget that for at least the next two years we will be as much part of the CAP as anywhere else in the EU. 
Indeed, given the hostile stance of some in Brussels towards the UK, we could end up even more subject than others to the red tape that surrounds the CAP. 
It was this red tape that persuaded many farmers to vote for Brexit – but the big unanswered question is whether the government will eventually have the courage to break away from the EU regulations it criticised, despite implementing them with a zeal absent in most other EU member states.
Unless something goes dramatically wrong between writing this and the final day for calculating the euro/sterling rate for single payments, farmers are in for a nice boost, which will hopefully arrive in a timely way in December. 
Waiting for those, they will look with some envy to their counterparts in Northern Ireland who will receive up to 70% of their payments in October. The increase over last year should be around 16%, which should help ease some cash flow problems.
It is, however, important this is seen in perspective, particularly if the general media try to paint this as a Brexit windfall story. It is all down to the weakening of sterling since the referendum in June, but the percentage figure is misleading. 
The exchange rate last year and, indeed, in 2014, was artificially high against the euro. The rate for this year will effectively make up what was lost with two big reductions in the sterling value of direct payments. 
In short, it will take the industry back to a more ‘normal’ rate level, where it was in 2013. That said, the combination of higher sterling support payments and a price boost for some from the weakening of sterling is welcome news in a difficult year.
Receiving those payments will be a reminder that we are still very much part of the CAP. 
The industry has had an assurance from the farm commissioner, Phil Hogan, that UK farmers will have the same rights and responsibilities under CAP as farmers anywhere else, until we leave the EU. 
Despite that, in many ways politicians and farmers have already detached themselves from what is happening in Brussels. That is reasonable when the debate is about issues that will not have an impact until after 2020, by when Brexit should have happened. 
That takes the UK out of the big debate on the CAP's future, but there are other issues around that are important. Central to that are plans to simplify CAP and, in particular, greening, which has been the big disaster of the Ciolos reforms.
There were high hopes that simplification would tackle these problems, but the plans for action have been delayed. Signs are that farmers will be decidedly underwhelmed by what emerges. 
Indeed COPA, the umbrella body for EU farm unions, has warned that some of the Hogan proposals could actually make greening worse.
This is because it is being suggested he wants to ban the use of pesticides on any crops grown in environmental focus areas (EFAs). This adds weight to claims that Brussels is backing down because of pressure from the environmental lobby. 
Greening was invented by Dacian Ciolos to try to sell CAP to taxpayers, and it is clear now that it has become another line in the sand green groups will defend. 
Far from simplification they want it toughened, and for that reason farmers cannot expect any easing of the greening burden before the UK quits the EU.
This leads on to the question Defra ministers are not answering. That is whether the government will live up to claims made before the referendum, that leaving the EU would be about reducing red tape in agriculture. 
It should not be difficult to answer some simple questions. Will they scrap the nitrate zone regulations?; will they scrap greening or make it more realistic?; and will they make other policies more compatible with practical reality? Will they also scrap EU plans to ban a long list of agrochemicals, at a heavy cost to agriculture? 
If the answer to at least some of these questions is not 'yes', the inevitable question from farmers will be why then did they vote for Brexit?