With massive drifts making travel impossible, Trent Thiele road a snowmobile 50 miles Sunday, checking a dozen pig facilities to ensure thousands of animals were getting feed, water and fresh air.

"It's been a lot of early mornings and late nights," said Thiele, who raises 15,000 pigs with five partners in northeast Iowa. "I'm worn out."

Blowing snow cut visibility, making it difficult to see rising drifts, Thiele said.

"I got thrown off the snowmobile hard, several times," he said. "You just couldn't see. You'd hit a snowbank, go flying and get back on again."

With February likely the second snowiest on record, this winter may go down as one of the toughest ever for thousands of Iowa livestock producers.

The statewide snowfall average is 21 inches so far this month, just short of the 1962 record of 22.2 inches, says Justin Glisan, the state climatologist.

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The snowstorm coming Friday should dump another 1 to 3 inches across Iowa, Glisan said.

The forecast for early March shows below normal temperatures, he said.

Iowa's $13.6 billion livestock industry is among the nation's largest, leading the country in pig and egg production, and ranking seventh for raising cattle.

Iowa farmers raise about 48 million pigs each year, 57.5 million hens that produce 16.5 billion eggs, and 4 million cattle.

"It was hard to get to people this past weekend, and it was hard to get to animals," said Jeff Kaisand, the state veterinarian.

"Producers are resourceful. They will dig the roads out themselves so they can get to animals," he said. "There were farmers running tractors up and down the road where I live, trying to open up roads."

Thiele and others on his team used end-loaders and tractors to cut paths through drifts blocking roads Sunday, Monday and part of Tuesday so workers could get to the confinements.

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The county's road graders and plows dug out pavedroads Monday before moving to clear gravel roads Tuesday, Thiele said. "Some roads still have 12-, 15-foot drifts," he said.

Those same drifts covered some of the fans that bring fresh air to the animals.

Each facility has eight fans. Thiele and his crew could be digging out and working on as many as half.

"It's overwhelming. It's a lot," he said.

The hog confinements have automatic water, feed and air controls. But "things happen. Machines break down," Thiele said.

Snow clogged an auger in one building that moves feed. "I was taking an auger apart in the blizzard," he said.

Dan Hanrahan crunched along the snow Tuesday to feed about 135 cows, including about a dozen that are close to calving.

He and his father, Richard, moved the cows close to the family's barns and sheds, where the animals can take shelter.

The entire herd gets added bales of hay and buckets of corn, depending on their age and how close they are to calving.

Hanrahan wants to make sure the cows are healthy, so they can withstand frigid temperatures and 60-mile-per-hour winds. That means a thick coat and fat layer.

A fourth-generation farmer, Hanrahan said raising cattle connects him to his family's roots. The cattle he's raising are descendants of his great-grandfather's original herd.

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Soon, Hanrahan will begin checking on his herd in the middle of the night, as well as twice a day, making sure heifers delivering their first calves aren't experiencing trouble.

One cow surprised him with a calf Sunday morning. More will come as the Hanrahan's calving season continues.

Later this year, the 42-year-old will sell about 70 calves to feeding operations, and about 10 bulls to neighbors. He'll keep some heifers to replace older cows as well as grow his family's herd.

Hanrahan said it's difficult to describe how he feels, watching a newborn calf take its first wobbly steps to nurse. "It never ceases to amaze me," he said. "It's life-affirming."