DONAHUE, Iowa — Farmers were once optimistic about the U.S. trade deal with China but as the Coronavirus continues to plague the nation, economists are speculating a possible recession.
John Maxwell says, "You just keep tying a knot and hanging on."
After years of blood, sweat and tears, the regions farmers are facing another crisis because of Coronavirus.
John is a dairy farmer and the owner of Cinnamon Ridge says, "Its just too bad there isn't milk in soap, it really would make the pain a little easier."
John was expecting to see a boost in demand through the new trade deal with China.
"Our foreign export unfortunately has ground to a halt. because they're saying we got other problems to deal with."
2017 was the last good year for farmers. 2018 the tariffs were enforced. Then 2019 we had the floods, leaving farmers struggling to make ends meet. The Coronavirus is an just another worry they've added to to their long list of concerns.
Dr. Dermot Hayes Professor of Economics at Iowa State University is speculating a recession.
"The biggest impact of all is that it looks like we're heading into recession.
Since this all started prices for basically all our commodities have been tumbling."
Corn and soybean farmer, Robb Ewoldt was looking for an opportunity to get back into the Chinese market, because of the virus that's no longer an option
"Phase one of the trade deal has not gotten the money into the markets pocket. We haven't seen the big ship loads going overseas."
Our farmers are optimists, but there's only so much they can take.
According to Robb Ewoldt, Pakistan is now buying soybeans from China. They're buying about a sixth of what China was before the virus.