Ok. Back in 03/04 I had a pen of fat cattle at the house. Most cattle I'd ever had on feed. There was a decentish margin so I decided to protect them with a Put. I don't remember the cost of the put but it wasn't all that much as the time value wasn't huge. Anyway, the cattle were about 2 weeks from market and the put was about to expire, pretty much worthless. I let it expire. Within the next day or two, Mad Cow hit, and you know the rest of the story. I went from making several thousand on a pen of cattle to losing several thousand on a pen of cattle in the span of a couple of trading days. I guess the moral of the story is, if you're protecting something with options, keep the options on until whatever it is you are protecting is gone. 

Hope this helps somebody out.