IF THE Church of England is the Conservative party at prayer, then the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) is the party at work. Unlike the prelates, however, farmers are already grappling with the adverse consequences of the referendum vote last June to leave the European Union. Worryingly for them, Theresa May’s government seems in no rush to help. Concerns are mounting among this core Tory political constituency that agriculture might turn out to be the patsy in the much-touted post-Brexit trade deals.

The greatest anxiety for farmers, and the food industry as a whole, is about access to labour. The food-processing industry is dependent on EU migrants; they represent 120,000 of its 400,000 workers. Horticultural and fruit farmers also rely heavily on both permanent and seasonal workers from the rest of the EU, to pick produce from strawberries to apples. They require about 85,000 workers annually to harvest their crops. Alison Capper, an apple farmer in Herefordshire, employs five full-time staff but 70 more seasonally; last year all 70 came from abroad. The NFU claims that the effects of Brexit are already being felt. The percentage of foreign EU workers recruited in the sector who failed to turn up for jobs they had already accepted rose from a paltry 2% at the beginning of 2016 to a worrying 8% by September.

Some European workers may be put off by the fall in the pound; others are anxious about their immigration status in Britain. Ms Capper says that the lead-times on recruitment are so long that she is already worrying about next year’s harvest, never mind this year’s.

With a tight labour market, few locals are available to pick fruit. Instead, farmers have proposed a revival of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme, which granted temporary visas but ended in 2013, extending it to both EU and non-EU workers. But the agriculture secretary and prominent Brexiteer, Andrea Leadsom, refused to make any promises about the prospects for such programmes when she spoke at the NFU’s annual shindig in Birmingham on February 21st. Hoping for clarity, the delegates were disappointed by Ms Leadsom’s reticence.

Indeed, she seemed determined to give as few details as possible about the government’s intentions. Minette Batters, the deputy head of the NFU, complains that “Brexit concerns every aspect of farming, but we still have no idea what the plan is.” Trade is a good example. The latest figures show that sales of British agricultural products to developing countries such as India are growing. But the EU remains a crucial market; it takes most of Britain’s lamb and mutton exports, for instance.

Farmers worry that the government might concede access to Britain’s domestic agricultural market in return for other countries opening up their services sectors to British banks, or their vehicle markets to car exports. For all its political clout and stewardship of the land, agriculture contributes less than 1% of GDP; manufacturing and financial services contribute 10% each. Even as they see Ms Leadsom offering them no reassurances on labour or trade, farmers are watching the prime minister making post-Brexit promises to the bosses of foreign car firms based in Britain.

Most concede that their business could be more efficient. That would reduce their dependence on cheap foreign labour. Automated milking and drones are in vogue at the moment. But delicate fruits will have to be picked by hand for the foreseeable future. Potatoes are picked by machines but actual people have to sort them to check their quality before they can be sold to supermarkets. Farmers are uncertain whether to invest heavily in new technology at the same time as they face the withdrawal of £3bn ($3.74bn) worth of EU subsidies, another subject on which Ms Leadsom was quiet this week.

Wearied by decades of excessive EU regulation, probably a majority of farmers voted for Brexit. But now that reality is beginning to bite, farmers argue that the time has come for the Tories to repay some of the loyalty that rural Britain has shown them. They might not matter much in terms of simple economics, but farmers should start getting bolshie like the French if Brexit becomes too damaging, says Ms Batters. Tractors, to the barricades.