"The crop this year has been pretty good really," said Keith Amen, who farms corn near Ault, Colorado. He's been farming with his family for 50 years now. The other day, he was doing some fall tillage, preparing the ground for next year's crop. These are tough times for Amen and many of his neighbors.

"It seems like all agricultural products are interrelated," said Amen. "And when you have a negative effect on one product, especially soybeans, it will have a negative impact on corn as well."

China's 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans has helped push commodity prices down across the board. Corn, which reached a high of eight U.S. dollars a bushel back in 2012, is 3.88 U.S. dollars now.

"If you're selling a corn crop for 3.50 to four dollars a bushel, that's not going to pay a lot of bills," Amen said.

"Business is alright," said Tim Magnuson, who farms corn nearby. 

Magnuson said he's learned to adapt to those lower prices.

"You tighten the belt a little bit and hope for the best," he said. "Of course everybody wants more for their product but sometimes you don't get it."

Corn yields have gone up over the years, thanks to improved technology and farming practices. So in a way, folks like Magnuson are a victim of their own success. A major worry for corn farmers now is that corn becomes even more abundant and prices fall even further, as soybean farmers switch to their crop.

"There's some of that going on," said Dale McCall who runs the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union. "I've heard as much as 25-30 percent in certain locations."

McCall thinks trade tensions with China, Canada and Mexico may be hurting farmers most of all.

"The longer these trade wars go on, the more uncertain it becomes and right now it impacts what you're going to plant, it impacts whether or not you're going to get an operating loan," he said.

Farmers differ on whether those trade disputes will lead to better times down the road.

"We hope that it's 25, 30 years of good working relationships with China," said John Widdowson, a Nebraska farmer. "There'll be a cost with that and pain but we're willing to go through that."

"I know trade deals are necessary but to use farmers and agriculture as pawns isn't something that people in Washington should be doing," Amen countered.

Low prices may prompt Amen to store his corn this winter in the hopes he can sell at a higher price next year, an option he says many younger farmers don't have. He's calm about the situation, on the outside.

"Oh, there's definitely turmoil that you're not seeing," Amen said with a wry smile. "I try not to dwell on it so that it doesn't affect me that much."

But it's part of the American agriculture landscape that's always been unpredictable, even more so now.

"Hopefully prices will get a little better and we'll make a little money," Magnuson said.