A rotting ear of corn sits on a struggling corn plant in a drought-stricken farm field on August 7, 2012 in Bondurant, Iowa.

Marion Kujawa looks over a pond he uses to water the cattle on his farm on July 16, 2012 in Ashley, Illinois. Kujawa began digging the pond deeper after it began to dry up during the drought. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Cattle gather near a windmill-fed water tank on drought-ravaged grassland on August 21, 2012 near Hugo, Colorado.

Farmer Jay Sneller watches as a crop cutter mows down the remnants of a drought-ravaged crop to sell as livestock feed on August 22, 2012 in Wiley, Colorado.

Darren Becker and his son Charlie, 19, stand in a drought-parched pond on the family farm on August 24, 2012 in Logan, Kansas.

Corn dead from drought sits in a field August 4, 2012 near New Harmony, Indiana. More than half of the counties in the United States have been designated disaster areas, mostly due to drought conditions throughout the Midwest.

Rain clouds move over the remnants of parched corn stalks on August 22, 2012 near Wiley, on the plains of eastern Colorado. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Jeremy Tilton prepares a ration of feed for cattle he is raising on pastureland August 3, 2012 near Cuba, Illinois.

A corn plant grows in a field parched by drought on July 26, 2012 near Olmsted, Illinois.

Dry stalks of corn, ravaged by drought, stand in a failed corn field on August 24, 2012 near Colby, Kansas.

A buoy used to help guide barges rests on the bank after the water level dropped on the Mississippi River July 18, 2012 near Wyatt, Missouri.