The Trump administration dispatched two of its top trade officials to meet with farm groups last week and the message was straightforward: The trade war that has generated tens of billions of dollars in tariffs on U.S. farm commodities isn’t likely to be over soon, and the ag sector needs to prepare for a lot more pain.

Recently there's been a spike in news media attention to farmer suicides brought on by depressed farm-product prices, but there appears to be a lack of solid data to compare the current incidence of suicide on the farm to that of the mid-1980s farm crisis.

Mother Nature is taking a toll on farmers and ranchers, with wildfires in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona and harsh wintry conditions in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.