Dietary Fibers and Supplementary Iron in a Milk Replacer for Veal Calves

Thirty 1-wk-old male Holstein calves were allotted randomly to six groups into a 3 X 2 factorial design. The control diet was skim milk, whey, tallow, vitamins, and minerals. Either Alpha-Floc or pectin was added at 5% dry matter. Supplementary iron was added at 30 and 50 ppm (dry basis). The six diets were fed for 14 wk. Calves without supplementary iron were mildly anemic at 6 wk and severely at 14 wk (7 and 5 g/dl hemoglobin). At 14 wk, both fibers had decreased blood hemoglobin in calves given supplementary iron. Feed refusal began at 8 wk with the appearance of anemia for calves unsupplemented with iron, but both Alpha-Floc and pectin decreased feed refusal. Supplementary iron practically eliminated feed refusal. Supplementary iron improved average daily gain and feed conversion, but dietary fibers had no effect. Adding Alpha-Floc and pectin to the diets reduced frequency of diarrheic feces. Mean carcass weight of calves fed supplementary iron was 11.6% higher than that of unsupplemented calves. Supplementary iron decreased liver lipids and increased glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase activity in blood plasma.