The sun rises over a grain silos Sunday, July 22, 2012 in Ashland, Ill. Crops as well as wildlife and livestock are struggling from the dry weather and a heat wave over much of the country. The nation's widest drought in decades is spreading. More than half of the continental U.S. is now in some stage of drought, and most of the rest is abnormally dry. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)