OHIO — Spring arrived earlier this month, and the USDA's first crop progress report of the year will be published April 7.

Between then and now, farmers are sure to to be in the fields, laying seed and navigating the fast-changing landscape of world trade.

"So, there's all that kind of flurry of activity, the calm before the storm, as you will, as [farmers] get ready and make sure that all of their ducks are in a proverbial row before planters start rolling in earnest," agriculture expert Andy Vance said.

"There's still the issue that we haven't passed a new farm bill yet," Vance said. "We've just seated a new Secretary of Agriculture and so she's trying to find her way."

Sec. Brooke Rollins is navigating the President's tariffs and responding to the avian influenza outbreak among other isssues.

"So there's a lot of, again, I would say uncertainty in the marketplace, but farmers have to do the best they can and mitigate the risks they're able to control themselves on the farm because they don't have a lot of ability to change what happens in Washington," he said.

According to the American Soybean Association, farmers are frustrated.

In a March 4 release the group said, "Farmer members of the American Soybean Association have for years consistently maintained their position that they do not support the use of tariffs, which threaten important markets and raise input costs for farmers, as a negotiation tactic."

"But by the same token, this president has been committed to bail out money, you might say for agriculture," Vance said.

During his first administration, President Donald Trump issued billions of dollars to farmers amid the trade war with China.

The Ag Report airs every Friday on Spectrum News 1.