Farmers plot how to salvage future amid Australia's devastating drought

SYDNEY - The worst drought in living memory is sweeping parts of eastern Australia, leaving farmers struggling to cope and asking questions about their future.

Record-low rainfall in some regions and successive seasons of above-average temperatures have blighted vast tracts of Australia's grazing and crop land.

While the weather has improved in parts of Western Australia, winter rain has gone missing across much of the country's east, leaving farmers praying for rain after planting seed in dry soil or culling cattle and sheep they can no longer afford to feed.