Variable precipitation, more
importantly drought, impacts
profitability for livestock
management. Financial outcomes
from management decisions related
to forage shortages can be
exacerbated by price variability.
This research examines alternative
management strategies to determine
the potential profitability and
riskiness over a long-term horizon
and across various drought event
scenarios. Results indicate that late
calving can be a promising strategy,
but it also can result in higher
variability in profits as compared to
some of the other strategies
analyzed. Retaining ownership of
steer calves over the winter, with the
option to sell if forage supplies
become scarce, outperforms both
partial liquidation and summer
feeding, and it results in less profit
variability than late calving or early
weaning
