"When I was a kid in the '50s ... it got real dry, but nothing like this, " said Marvin Helms, a 70-year-old farmer and rancher in central Arkansas who was compelled to sell his beef cattle after being short on feed.

CNN: SHARE THIS

Once a little molasses is stirred in, much of this trash becomes cattle feed, trucked just a short distance to the feedlots dotted among the cotton fields.

NPR: Texas Cotton: 'Farmer Profits at Every Step'

In Arkansas, where conditions are the driest they've been since 1925, according to one widely used measure of short-term drought, ranchers have been selling off cattle to avoid having to feed and water them, said Arkansas Department of Agriculture spokesman Zach Taylor.

CNN: U.S. drought biggest since 1956, climate agency says