Well Dun, there isn't ever a surprise calving as we haven't had to assist a cow or 1st calf heifer in 10+ years; I guess it is just good management and using good CED/ BW Bulls.
Drought is a possibility, but like every other smart businessman some planning ahead never hurt anyone, so that is why we always plant TiffLeaf 3 Millet and if we don't need it we bale it 3 times between May and September or in September we let it head out and mow it down and sell a few Dove Hunts on Labor day weekend.
As for floods, here again Nature is very unpredictable, but here again we have been lucky in that regard, but we dont have much bottom land here and with the continued use of our Aerway aerator run off is just non-existent; here again some good management is helpful.
And 2nd to last, but not least since we planted out Winter annuals in October we have been fortunate to have over 8 inches of rainfall-we have so much grazing and feed so little hay it is such a pleasure not to have to mess with the worst form of forage (nutritionally) on Earth.
AND now finally last---- we dont concentrate our efforts on HAY ---we let our hay meadows get rank on purpose so we make our money back on our forages we put up in Hay--- we understand by doing this that we have a low protein hay, but TDN doesn't suffer significantly even with a crummy 5% grass hay. Instead, for about $3 per ton, we inject our bales with a combination of energy/minerals (which aren't cheap these days--when is the last time you bought a few tons of high Mg Mineral>?)/ and Protein booster. and after we inject our 5% CP/50% TDN hay we end up with a 10% CP/50% TDN hay bale for 1/3 the cost.
Keep growing and baling and feeding and paying that high dollar fertilizer bill -- fine with me... , but if it is just the same with you--I will stick to my intuition and management schemes, where we concentrate on making a living and producing a quality product for you and others to enjoy at the steakhouse