Argentina's farm sector is facing $5 billion in losses as major growing areas are desperately waiting for rain. The Associated Press reports the worst summer drought in a generation has turned wheat fields to dust and dried up pastures. Ranchers are losing hundreds of cattle to starvation. Across Argentina, this year has seen the feast rainfall since 1971, the article says. Meteorologists say ocean temperatures in the Southern Atlantic have fueled wind currents that have prevented colder, wetter Pacific fronts from moving in. The government has projected a 44 per cent drop in wheat output, 27 per cent less corn and just a modest seven per cent increase in soybean production, well behind the annual trend of 10 per cent growth per year. Soybeans are more resilient and better able to cope with the dry conditions, the article says.