On a scorching July afternoon, Melinda Bastian walked through the pasture of her 350-acre farm on the outskirts of Mexico, which she owns with her husband, Mike, spreading feed in the dry grass. She coaxed the cattle, mothers and calves, out of the pond — at least, what remains of the pond. The cattle stood stomach-deep in a pool depleted by weeks of drought and high temperatures in mid-Missouri. Bastian's children — Jesse, 23, and Chris, 25 — have grown and moved out of the house but the cows still demand her full attention...
