WAXAHACHIE, Tx. — There is a steady race against the clock for Steve Patman and his workers as they work to get a field of hay harvested before sweltering Texas temperatures become too much to work in.

Patman's great-grandfather first started farming the fields in Waxahachie, Texas, after World War I. But in all his 65 years, this lifelong Texan cannot recall ever seeing things so dry.

"See how the bottom leaves are all dried up, you're losing hay," Patman said kneeling down in the middle of a recently harvested hay field.

It's been more than a month since any kind of considerable rain has fallen on this part of Texas. Irrigating the fields is far too expensive for most farmers. So starved for moisture, crops are dying, forcing Patman to harvest both his hay and corn weeks early.

"It makes me debate whether I need to keep going or stop," Patman said.

At the end of the day, farmers like Patman are producing far less than they had hoped. Just to keep up with rising costs, he recently had to take out a $500,000 loan from the bank.

"I've been farming on the same money since I started. This year kicked us in the butt. You're never getting ahead. It's getting too hard I'm getting too old now," Patman added.

Farmers across the country are in extreme or exceptional droughts right now. They are squeezed between poor growing conditions and inflation costs driving up everything from fertilizer to tractor parts.

"It's terrible and it's not just me I've got farmer friends all over the United States and they're all in the same boat we're in," he said.

Ginger Mulkey managed Boyce Feed and Grain in the center of Waxahachie. She knows how hard her neighbors are working to keep Americans fed. But with each new shipment of feed and grain that comes in, she's forced to raise prices.

"At the end of the day, all I do is adjust pricing. If I'm not staying on top of pricing you're giving it away," she remarked.

If you've dined out during the pandemic, you've probably noticed your local restaurants are operating with reduced or even dramatically reduced staffing. The Omicron variant is adding to an already existing staffing problem for the restaurant industry.

"We knew that it just was one more wave, one big variant, one bad winter away from disaster for a lot of restaurants, and that reality is quickly settling in at bars and restaurants throughout the country," said Caroline Styne, co-founder of the Independent Restaurant Coalition. 

With food prices going up, along with the cost of just about everything, fewer customers have also been dining in at restaurants around the country. All of those challenges add to the already huge problem with staffing shortages in the restaurant industry, and some of those businesses say they're on the brink of closing permanently. 

"It could be the end of January. It could be into March or April. But, it's not very long," said Bret Csencsitz, managing partner at Gotham Bar and Grill. 

Restaurant Business Magazine cites the research firm Placer.ai, that reports restaurant visits for the week of Dec. 20 were more than 10% lower than the same time in 2019. And the National Restaurant Association in November said 77% of restaurants reported not having enough employees.

Some of those lucky enough to have enough workers say they're now having to pay them even when they're closed because the demand for labor is so high. 

"I have no business, but please come work for us and we'll pay you. You know that's not normal logic and business," said Michael Dorf, CEO of City Winery.

Businesses say the whiplash of COVID-19 surges are driving them into the ground, as owners struggle to keep their doors open. Industry advocates say these current problems will have an economic ripple effect throughout the country. 

"The financial hit to the country is huge when you lose restaurants to the neighborhood, to the community, and to the job market in general," Styne said. 

This story was originally published by Meg Hilling and Bianca Facchinei of Newsy.