The nutrition of the veal calf

With the introduction of intensive liquid-feeding systems of fattening calves for veal and the demand for a pale flesh, the effect of anaemia on the performance of calves is clearly of importance.It is well known that anaemia develops in calves restricted to a milk diet for long periods, and that the condition can be alleviated by administration of iron (Cannon, 1931).The rate of growth of the calf, however, probably affects the age at which a condition of severe anaemia develops (Blaxter, Sharman & MacDonald, 1957).In the work of Herman (1936) with Holstein calves having initial haemoglobin values of about 1 1 -5 g/roo ml and gaining about 0.68 kg/day, haemoglobin levels did not fall to 5 g/roo ml blood until the calves were at least 289 days of age.Similarly, Knoop, Krauss & Washburn (1935) found that a supplement of 400 mg Fe and 40 mg copper daily had no effect on the weight gain of calves during the first 112 days of life; at this age haemoglobin levels of the unsupplemented group varied from 3.4 to 7.8 g/Ioo ml.More recently, Blaxter et al. (1957) produced anaemia in four calves kept under laboratory conditions in which stringent precautions were taken to prevent access to Fe.During the first 6 weeks of life the weight gains of the two control calves given Fe and the four calves given no Fe were similar at 0.35 kg/day whereas, during the subsequent 6-week period, the calves given Fe gained 0.67 kg/day and the calves given no Fe gained 0-49 kg/day.After 1 2 weeks of age the beneficial effect of Fe supplementation was even more marked.In a field experiment with forty-six pairs of suckling beef calves ( Blaxteret al. 1957), a daily supplement of 35 mg Fe increased haemoglobin content and mean corpuscular volume, but no measurement of the effect on performance was made.Niedermeier, Allen, Lance, Rupnow & Bray (1959) found no significant effect of a supplement of 240 mg Fe and 7 mg Cu daily on the weight gain of calves given whole milk ad lib. to 39 days of age; at this age calves given the supplement had a haemoglobin value of 15.3 and those given no supplement a value of 8 g / I m ml.