CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Tom Folz drives around on a sunny, August afternoon and surveys the thousands of acres of dark green, leafy soybean plants and tall stalks of corn he grows on his sprawling farm in Christian County, Ky.

At 54, Folz has wispy, white hair matching his white mustache. It's taken him several long work weeks to get his crop to where it is today.

“You got to be a little bit 'off' to be a farmer,” Folz said. “You don't get to enjoy anything during harvest and planting season because we're working.”

He said his crop has grown well, which is something not all farmers here can say. Ohio Valley farmers were unable to plant almost 1.6 million acres this year — most of that in northwest Ohio — because of excessive rainfall and flooding. Across the country, farmers faced similar weather-related struggles.

On top of bad weather, Folz worries about the country's increasingly stormy relations with trading partners, especially China. A trade war with escalating tariffs by both the U.S. and China has stretched for more than a year.

Folz fears it will continue to depress the prices he gets for his harvest, putting more stress on his family-run business.

“Everything is just scary. And there's so many things that we think we've figured out, when really, we don't have any idea what's going on,” Folz said. “Especially when a tweet comes out and drives prices down 10 or 15 percent, or a report comes out and drives corn prices down 10 percent,” he said. “You go from a profit margin to a substantial loss from numbers real quick.”

Weeks ago Folz signed up for the second round of the Market Facilitation Program, a Trump administration effort to give a portion of $16 billion as direct trade relief payments to affected farmers.

Folz said he doesn't like government subsidies in general, and wants trade deals reached as soon as possible. “I wish it would settle today,” he said.

Folz said the relief payments keep farmers afloat in the meantime.

“If (Trump) doesn't keep stepping up with these different little payments to help save us until it gets done, there'll be a lot of farmers who won't be in business in a couple of years if it lasts that long,” Folz said.

He still backs the Trump administration's efforts to negotiate new trade deals because he wants someone to stand up against unfair trade practices and make up for a trade deficit with China.

A recent Farm Journal survey showed a large majority of the country's farmers still support Trump. Yet many regional farmers are also becoming weary of ongoing trade disputes, with some questioning the Trump administration's tactics and ultimately whether they'll support Trump's reelection.

In northeast Ohio, Ben Klick is just establishing his career in agriculture. The 24-year-old closed on his first farm this year and grows crops including corn. He said he thinks farmers still trust Trump to follow through with trade deals.“He's done a lot for us. More than any recent president has done for a farmer in the past,” Klick said. “As long as he comes through on some of his trade promises, I think he'll have no problem with our support.”Klick thinks Trump is making progress on his trade promises to replace NAFTA with a new trade deal, called USMCA. But Klick also wishes Trump would be more careful with his words.“I wish he would just quit saying he was close on something when he's been saying that so many times now,” Klick said. “I'd rather him just say 'Be patient, this takes time,' instead of him saying, 'We're close on something; we're close.' And you get your hopes up, but then nothing happens.”The latest relief payments are being distributed to most crop farmers by acreage planted, depending on the farmer's county of residence. U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said they based payments on a calculation of the amount of trade damage that farmers in each county are expected to face.These payments vary widely. In the Ohio Valley, they range from as low as $15 an acre in some counties to as high as $124 an acre in Braxton County, W. Va.