A strictly milk-fed calf has a pink-tinged creamy white flesh because milk almost totally lacks certain minerals (particularly iron) that are necessary building blocks for the body's production of the red myoglobin.
As soon as the calf starts to eat foods like grass and grain, which contain iron, its flesh tone starts to redden. By the time the weaned calf is a few months old, the flesh is pinkish red. Before it reaches the half-year mark, the color is rosy red. At baby beefhood (between six and twelve months old), the meat is cherry red. At the animal's maturity, the color is dark red, and it continues to deepen with time and exercise.