Back in the game...

After a 10 year hiatus, our family is back in the junior show game.  We just purchased a modest Hereford steer for our 9 year old daughter.  The feeding programs of my youth have gone by the wayside.  Any suggestions from folks with good, recent experience would be helpful and much appreciated.  The local elevator carries Show Rite feeds and have access to Umbargers too.  Any thoughts/help would be great. 

We have been using Umbarger for three years now going on our fourth, and it has done great for us. We always start calves, heifer or steer on the breeder grower feed. For steers we will then switch to cattle blaster and keep them on just that or a mixture of cb and bg until about 1000 lbs. After that its just judging the cover on the animal and transitioning between cb and show ready and usually finishing them on barley base and show ready.

I would do some pencil pushing. We have fed Umbargers and milled feed. At times we were able to get umbargers cheaper as the bag feed prices in our area didn't go up as fast as the milled feed. The past few years we went back to our own ration. We can make changes according to finish and growth of calves. It can be cheaper than bagged feed if you buy in bulk.

OH Breeder - Thanks.  That is what we always did when I was growing up - local elevator is excellent.  We also felt like we had better consumption because the feed was fresher.  Would you mind helping me out with what custom ration works for you?