U.S. soybean farmers are hoping that President Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday will bring relief from the ongoing trade war between the two countries. CBS News' Lana Zak has the latest.

Texas

U.S. soybean farmers are hopeful that an upcoming trade agreement between the United States and China will ease the strain caused by China's boycott of American soybeans. While farmers are prepared to resume exports if orders resume, there is uncertainty about the volume China will purchase, as many orders have already shifted to other countries.

Despite the Trump administration's belief that a framework is in place, details about China's commitments remain unclear, and aid packages for farmers are delayed due to a government shutdown. Cattle farmers are also facing difficulties as increased beef imports from Argentina have lowered herd values without reducing consumer prices, leaving many producers feeling sidelined in the current trade environment.

U.S. soybean farmers hope for relief ahead of Trump's meeting with Xi

All right, to farmers now, who are hoping that this new trade deal will lift a major strain from China's soybean boycott. President Trump and China's President Xi Jinping are getting ready to sign off on those deals. That happens on Thursday. But this all comes as promises of aid and a new farm bill remain delayed because of the government shutdown. So I want to bring in CBS News correspondent Lana Zak to talk more about this. Lana, you've been spending a lot of time with those soybean farmers. How quickly can they get their silos empty and prepare to send their products to China? They are ready to go as soon as those orders start to come in, Vlad. The question, however, is now going to be how much will China actually buy? Because as you'll recall, they shifted a lot of those purchase orders to other countries. Listen to agricultural economist Chad Hart. We think there's probably about two million or 200 million bushels worth of demand in China that in that window of December and January that hasn't been met yet. And that would be the likely target for U.S. sales here if an agreement can be made in time. There would still be the need for some support, but this helps lessen that blow. So we know from the Trump administration that they believe that they have a framework in place, but we still have yet to hear any of the details about how much China would actually be purchasing. And as you heard from Professor Hart, even then we don't think that it's going to be enough to make farmers whole. So they're still waiting for that promised aid package, which has been on hold because of the government shutdown. So Lana, in the meantime, how are cattle farmers coping with the Trump administration's push to import beef from Argentina to lower prices? Of course, they've given Argentina a huge amount of money. And farmers themselves, the ones that we've spoken to, have told us that they're still struggling and they can't believe that the money that's coming to them is a little too late. Absolutely. And a lot of these farmers that are the soy farmers and corn farmers that are hurting also have diversified. They have livestock. They have cattle. They tell me that that was the only thing that was going to make them any money. And as soon as President Trump said that he wanted to import more beef from Argentina, they saw the value of their herds drop, but it hasn't actually led to a decrease in price for consumers. Take a listen to some of the farmers I spoke with. It really only is going to be about 2.5 percent of our total beef supply. It's really not going to make a substantial difference. The whole point of tariff was to bring production back home. So we are producing beef here and now he is trying to do something to destroy that production. We're being used and abused as producers. It feels like being a pawn in a game we're not going to win. So as you can imagine, it is very difficult for all of them if they thought that they were going to be making some money off of their cattle only to see those prices in the markets drop. It's a lot like the stock market. As soon as there's whispers about changes, even if those changes aren't significant enough to affect consumers, it can affect the markets, those commodity markets, which means that farmers are going to get less for their cattle. And they say that still the distributors, the packers, all of those other parts along the supply chain, those are the people who are going to be making money, not the farmers. All right. Lana Zak, as always, we appreciate your reporting. Thank you very much. You've been on this beat for quite some time.

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