Drought-stricken rancher: "It's kind of like farming in the desert"

A relentless heat wave is piling on the difficulties faced by ranchers and farmers who've endured up to two years of drought in the Western U.S., causing some to sell off cattle at an increasingly rapid pace. 

Severe drought last year forced 40% of farmers to liquidate a portion of their herds, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. This year, that percentage could be even higher. The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture had the nation's inventory of cattle and calves at 98.8 million head as of July 1, down 2% from a year earlier.

Most of Texas and Oklahoma have some measure of drought killing off pastures where cattle graze and depleting ponds and tanks that in the past were replenished with rain water, according to David Anderson, a professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M.