As a livestock exhibitor, your primary objective is to make your animal stand out on the day of the show and ultimately win a prize.

While you may think you have a fabulous animal at home in the yard, it’s only when you enter the show ring that you realise the intensity of the competition and the supreme quality of all the other entries. The bar might be a lot higher than you thought – and you could be disappointed.

Show preparation doesn’t start just a few weeks before the show season. It starts at least three to four months beforehand and initially requires a strict feeding plan.

In fact, timing is critical for many aspects of the preparation process, because you want your animal to peak within a relatively short window.

Here are some useful tips on how to prepare your beef animal and ultimately make him shine in the show ring.

Nutrition and feed management

Correct diet formulation and proper feed management are key husbandry areas in rearing show cattle. Feeding strategy should be meticulously planned and revolves around a combination of art and science.

The key here is to have your animal in peak condition over a shorter time period, choose the principal showing period for your stock and aim to peak for a four- to six-week window that coincides with the showing period.

This approach is particularly pertinent for young heifers and show cows, to ensure productivity and longevity.

Pedigree bulls

An ideal nutritional programme for young bulls should allow rapid growth, muscle deposition and avoid excessive condition. Typically, bulls are offered ad-lib concentrates, with intake targeted at 2% to 2.2% of bodyweight. For a 600kg bull, the targeted intake will be 12-13 kg of meal, with a daily gain of 1.7-1.8kg/day and an FCR of 6-7kg/day.

To achieve this, the guideline for continental breeds is to offer ad-lib access to an energy-dense diet for 120-150 days prior to the show and reduce this by 30 days for traditional breeds.

A bull’s diet should be high in energy and contain the correct amount of protein and minerals. It should have a minimum energy target >0.95 UFV/kg or >12.2 MJ/kg; crude protein content of 12-14%; along with an appropriate bull mineral premix (20g/kg 100kg liveweight) and fortified with zinc and salt.

Concentrate ingredients should be of high quality and consistency. Low digestibility and variable ingredients sources should be avoided, as their variability can lead to digestive upsets.

The bulk of the concentrate mix should consist of high quality, reliable ingredients such as barley and maize grain/flaked (energy sources), soya bean meal, peas/beans (protein sources) and sugar beet pulp (digestible fibre). These ingredient types are highly palatable, nutritionally safe and promote intake.

Autumn show calves

Autumn show calves are weaned in May, separated into groups and offered good quality grass along with 4kg to 5kg of meal.

Heifers two years old or greater

Two-year-old heifers need to be on a shorter feeding plan (70 to 90 days for peak condition) than the bulls.

Be rigid and don’t surpass 2% of bodyweight, especially for younger heifers. For larger continental breeds at two years old or greater, gradually build up their intake, and offer 9kg of meal per day along with high quality grass.

Don’t offer greater than 4.5 kg of concentrate at any one feed, so split the feeds accordingly. Space them out throughout the day and, most importantly, be consistent. Collectively, this will lower the threat of acidosis.

Heifers then remain on this rate for 70 to 90 days, after which meal allocation will be reduced to 5-6 kg.

In the case of heifers, balancing condition is a very difficult task. Aim to peak over a shorter time period and maintain at that condition level.

For this you need to judge feeding levels based on the animal’s response. For best results constantly monitor for pudgy/fat-like condition. If animals are laying down excess fat, reduce meal only to a couple of kg.

For all animals, feeding management is critical. Introduce feed gradually and build up meal over three to four weeks. Also reduce meal over the same time period when the show season is over.

Failure to do this correctly could lead to potential functional issues, such as hoof lameness or acidosis-related disorders.

Always ensure a minimum amount of effective long fibre is available – ideally good quality hay offered at 10-15% of the overall diet (>25 NDF diet content) or 1-2kg per head daily.

Lameness and hoof care

Structural correctness and locomotion are two key areas the judge will assess your animal on. Soundness of legs and feet is the most important functional issue .

If bulls get lame, they cannot be presented for show and performance will also fall. Lameness is largely a management problem, principally nutritionally related (poor feed management and diet formulation), though the causes may be multifactorial, be they nutritional, environmental or genetically related.

Beside laminitis issues, attention, care and maintenance of animals’ feet are essential. Hoof claws will need to be of equal size for balanced weight distribution. If hooves need to be trimmed, this should be done at the start to midway through the feeding period, so there is enough time for some regrowth, which acts as a cushion.

The feeding pen should be large enough so animals can exercise. Exercise will help keep the bulls active, physically fit and prevent stiffness.

Hair growth

During the show season, hair growth is less of an issue than during the winter/spring period, but it’s a key aesthetic component of the show animal.

Some breeds and genetic lines have better coats than others. Nevertheless, to encourage hair growth, simply wash your show animals regularly, or at a minimum monthly.

Water is the best promoter of hair growth as it helps dissipate heat and, more importantly, it lowers the temperature of the hair follicle, thereby stimulating growth.

Washing the hair and clipping the coat well in advance of the show encourages regrowth and makes for a fine healthy coat.

Brushing the hair regularly will strengthen hair and remove lice and dead hair.

Oil or fat additives can be given to increase coat shine, but not growth. Animals on high levels of feeding are more prone to lice and mange. To treat, use a good ivermectin product at regular intervals throughout the show season and watch out for objects that animals can scratch off.

Training for the show

It’s your responsibility to ensure your animal is trained before you attend the show. Training should be done well in advance of the show date. Ideally, start training calves from three to four weeks of age. Once an animal gets used to a halter, they will never forget it.

Training a mature animal is more difficult. In this case, halter training should be done 12-15 weeks before the show date.

Initially, leave the animal tied up for two to four hours and bed down with straw and feed. Repeat for three to four days. On the third or fourth day, attempt walking out the animal in an enclosed yard. Walking the animal alongside a mature, well-trained cow is a useful strategy – it helps to speed up the training process and takes the strain out of breaking the animal.

Once trained, continue the process intermittently over the next few months. For bulls, have them ringed or put a snaffle on – this gives you further control. Keep both the halter and the rope short.

For larger herds, the tractor and training frame is an essential piece of kit on pedigree farms. Some advice in training is to drive the tractor back to the field where the animal came from, train two or three animals together initially and operate at a slow pace. The use of a snaffle (through the back window) is also very helpful.

Experience would suggest it takes roughly about four to five runs to adequately train most stock. However, regardless of the approach adapted, there is no training method that will surpass the experience of the first day out in the show.

To read the full Show and Showing Focus Supplement, click here.