Striving to get a massive yield out of his crops in rural Maryland is how Burrier hopes to make it through yet another uncertain year, beset by market disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and renewed trade tensions between the United States and China.

American farmers growing corn and soy -- the biggest crops in the world's largest economy -- were hoping for a turnaround this year after Washington and Beijing reached a truce in their months-long trade war, which included a pledge to buy more US agricultural goods.

"It's kind of glum," said Dave's wife Linda Burrier, a soybean farmer who serves on the United Soybean Board, the crop's governing body in the US.

Facing a supply glut, the US Department of Agriculture projects the average farm price for corn will to drop to its lowest level in 14 years in the 2020-2021 growing season.

Dave Burrier said the current conditions are a grim echo of the 1980s -- a decade he would prefer to forget -- when a combination of low commodity prices, heavy debt burdens and a grain embargo against the Soviet Union ruined American farmers.