ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — While at Helms Dairy in Arkadelphia, Richard Helms likes to begin his day at 4:30 in the morning.

Like clockwork, he and the dogs get the cows ready for their first milking of the day.

It's a routine that his family has kept for more than a century.

"My grandpa settled here in 1902. We've been here ever since. [I've] milked a cow here every day since then," Helms said.

They do it all, rain or shine and seven days a week but recently, the family's legacy has been at risk.

"The last few years have really got tough. They always have been tough, but they got unbearable," Helms described. "The rising cost of everything, it just interest rates, parts, labor, just all, just all snowballed."

The rising costs have left the farm millions in debt and on the brink of foreclos

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