Scott Olson / Getty Images

Chris Werland sorts cattle prior to auction at the Fairview Sale Barn on August 2, 2012 in Fairview, Illinois.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Jonathan Daniel Clark brings animals to be auctioned at the Fairview Sale Barn on August 2, 2012 in Fairview, Illinois.

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Cows are auctioned at the Fairview Sale Barn on August 2, 2012 in Fairview, Illinois.

Drought has forced many farmers in the Midwest to sell some or all of their sheep and cattle as they are faced with shortages of feed, water and healthy pasture land. Cattle at this auction were selling for about 25 percent less than they did in the spring when farmers were optimistic about this year's harvest.  Continue reading the full story.

Photos by Scott Olson / Getty Images

Corn plants dry in a drought-stricken farm field on July 17, 2012 near Fritchton, Ind. The corn and soybean belt in the middle of the nation is experiencing one of the worst droughts in more than five decades.

Drought-damaged corn grows in a field on July 17, 2012 near Princeton, Ind. The state was the nation's fourth largest corn producer in 2011.

Reuters reports:

Broiling heat blanketed much of the Midwest again on Tuesday, exacerbating the region's worst drought in more than 50 years and devastating corn, soy and other vital crops.

Across the country's agricultural heartland, elected officials met with farmers and ranchers affected by the growing disaster promising government relief.

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Corn plants dry in a drought-stricken farm field near Shawneetown, Ill. According to the Illinois Department of Agriculture 48 percent of the state's corn crop is currently in poor to very poor condition.

Michael Conroy / AP

Boats sit on the dry, cracked bottom in a dry cove at Morse Reservoir in Noblesville, Ind., on July 16. The reservoir is down nearly 6 feet from normal levels and being lowered 1 foot every five days to provide water for Indianapolis.

Michael Conroy / AP

Boats sit on the bottom in a dry cove at Morse Reservoir in Noblesville, Ind., on July 16. The reservoir is down nearly 6 feet from normal levels and being lowered 1 foot every five days to provide water for Indianapolis.

AP reports -- The drought gripping the United States is the widest since 1956, according to new data released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Fifty-five percent of the continental U.S. was in a moderate to extreme drought by the end of June, NOAA's National Climactic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., said in its monthly State of the Climate drought report. That's the largest percentage since December 1956, when 58 percent of the country was covered by drought.

This summer, 80 percent of the U.S. is abnormally dry, and the report said the drought expanded in the West, Great Plains and Midwest last month with the 14th warmest and 10th driest June on record.

Continue reading.

Adrees Latif / Reuters

Lightning strikes over a barn surrounded by a soybean crop in Donnellson, Iowa, July 13, 2012.

msnbc.com's Miguel Llanos reports: 61 percent of the contiguous U.S. was listed in drought, up from 56 percent last week, according to the National Weather Service's Drought Monitor.

"Anytime we have a drought maturing in mid-summer, the chances for rapid intensification will be there," Gary McManus, Oklahoma's associate state climatologist, told msnbc.com. "Even normal heat and dry conditions can speed that drought along." More than 1,000 counties in 26 states were named natural-disaster areas on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The move gives that designation to any county in severe drought for eight consecutive weeks, speeding up low-cost loan assistance to farmers. Continue reading the full story.

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Photos by John Davenport / San Antonio Express-News via AP

Photos by John Davenport / San Antonio Express-News via AP

A dock that once floated in Medina Lake hangs by wires on the side of the rocky bank.

The banks of Tiki Island in the middle of Medina Lake, Texas, are exposed, Jan. 19, 2012, due to receding water levels. The lake is 52 feet down. It has not been this low in more than two decades, and the lake is expected to continue to lose a few inches every day as the 15-month drought continues.

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