The Texas panhandle has not seen rain since October 17, 2010—making this the state's driest period of time on record.

And it's not just the panhandle—with more than 82 percent of the state experiencing "severe or exceptional" drought conditions, Texas' agricultural community has taken a major hit this year.

The drought has brought with it not only a lack of rain, but also excessive heat and wind—causing some to compare present-day conditions with those of the Dust Bowl, which plagued the panhandle region in the 1930s, and is commonly thought of as the worst drought in American history, thanks to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

The truth is: the Dust Bowl drought has nothing on this one, for some parts of the state.

"When you look at the average rainfall, they had about 10 to 15 inches of water during that time, where we've had almost none," said Steve Yoder, who lives and farms in Dalhart, Texas. "Additionally we've had record 111 degree heat and 40 mph winds."

The combination of wind and heat makes it hard to keep moisture even in irrigated fields. And Yoder pointed out that while his farm irrigates most all of his crops, dry land farmers in Texas will have no crop to speak of when it's all said and done.

"Even the grass land has disappeared—the cows don't have anything to eat, so we have to buy feed for them. Eventually it will get too expensive to keep up and we'll have to move them to other parts of the country."

Ralph Miller, a 79-year-old cattle farmer from Fluvanna, who lived through Texas' worst three droughts on record—including the Dust Bowl—told a reporter for the LA Times that he may be forced to downsize his cattle stock for the first time in 40 years. "I'd say it's just about as bad as it can get."

Though both Yoder and Miller have been farming for more than 30 years, they say that a drought like this could easily put someone who has just started out of business. And according to Yoder, his farm isn't even seeing the worst of it.

"Just the other day, the co-op manager said east of town they had half the crop they had last year. If a guy had good insurance coverage—even with input costs as high as they are—they may be able to get refinanced, but they'll be playing catch up for five or six years."

Texas, one of the nation's top wheat producing states, has already had three-quarters of its wheat crop categorized as "poor" to "very poor" by the USDA. In fact, the wheat seed that was planted last fall still hasn't grown, and if it does, it will most likely be dead—bad news for the state's wheat production as well as its cotton crop, which has to be planted between tall wheat stalks to protect it from the dusty wind that erodes small growing plants.

However, while the Dust Bowl rendered millions of acres of farmland useless and displaced hundreds of thousands of people, including the main characters in Steinbeck's novel, Texas farmers are standing strong and relying on something that producers in the 1930s didn't have: the risk-management and conservation components of the '08 Farm Bill.

The crop insurance policies which farmers can purchase today are expensive, but provide tailored protection and, in this case, are already paying significant indemnities to the drought-stricken farmers, giving them the hope and capital to start again.

And yet, despite this, farm policies are vulnerable in ongoing federal budget discussions even though they've been cut by $15 billion over the past six years.

"We've already taken some pretty deep cuts," said Yoder. "Crop insurance is about the only risk management tool that's left; I'd hate to see them weaken it more. Banks are counting on it... And we're counting on the banks."

Yoder said that thanks to a strong farm policy and programs like crop insurance, most of his neighbors are hoping to avoid a default completely and bounce back in the coming years, so that they don't end up like the farm families of the Grapes of Wrath.

"No one," he said, "has any interest in writing the sequel."