Iowa farmers battle bitter cold, 15-foot snow drifts to care for animals

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.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.