Does anybody have feeding advice or any recomended feeding brands and mixtures for heifers for show?

Question

I'm in the district 6 Texas FFA and have recently caught a calf at the Houston livestock show and rodeo and I have chose to use my catching money to buy a 6 month old Hereford heifer. I can already tell that she can be a grand champion if a lot of work is put in, but I have started out feeding her twice a day:

3 large scoops of Purina Show Chow Fitters Edge

2 Large scoops of Beet pulp watered down from from the time of last feed

1 large scoop of oats

and of course as much hay as she'd like

My question i does anybody have showmanship experience that might suggest any other feeding methods, brands, and/or mixtures/recipes.

PS I'm trying to find a way to quicken the process of halter breaking and making her more use to me by giving her treats or anything else along those lines. So if anybody knows of treats or anything else that their calf enjoys please share. I know that time working with her is one of the best solutions but anything that may help couldn't hurt.

Thank you

Answer 1

This sounds like a great ration, about the same as what my family uses! The one difference is that instead of using oats, we have a mixture of corn, cottonseed, and molasses. The cottonseed is great for growing hair! As far as brands go, the Purina Show Chow is one of the best.

**You really don't need to have treats, I have found one of the best ways to get an animal used to you is while they are eating, walk in and comb them (bonus-it's good for their hair too) and to help with breaking, simply leave her tied up inside during the day, use a mister or something similar to keep her cooled down!

Hope this helps you a little!

Answer 2

It doesn't sound like you need any help. Your feed sounds great. You might ask at your feed store and they can help you if you need anything else as the calf grows. Make sure that your hay is high quality, you didn't mention the kind, alfalfa is the best. You are right about spending time with her is the best way to get her gentle and halter break her. The only trick that I ever saw that really worked well was we had a neighbor who halter broke their calves by tying them to a yoke around his jack, or jackass if you prefer. He let that jack lead them around day and night for about three or four days. When that jack started to move the calf learned pretty fast that they had better move as well. He handed out a pretty harsh punishment if they didn't. Sometimes I felt sorry for the calves, but he had the best halter broke calves in the county.