New research supports increased use of canola meal in the diets of weaned pigs. The research team of Dr Martin Nyachoti at the University of Manitoba demonstrated recently that canola meal can be included in the diets of weaned pigs at levels up to 25 per cent while supporting high growth performance.

Canola meal is often limited in the diets of weaned pigs due to its high fibre levels, but as Nyachoti’s team has shown, proper diet formulation practices can allow canola meal to be utilised at higher levels when economically favourable to do so. Nyachoti published these results in the Journal of Animal Science in July.

Nyachoti’s new research also supports findings from Dr Ruurd Zijlstra and Dr Eduardo Beltranena from the University of Alberta, which showed positive results with canola meal inclusion up to 20 per cent in the diets of weaned pigs. This study was published in Animal Feed Science and Technology in 2011.

“These research projects show how outdated perceptions on maximum inclusion levels of canola meal in weaned pig diets are no longer relevant in diets formulated on net energy and digestible amino acids,” says Ms Brittany Dyck, canola meal manager for the Canola Council of Canada.

Dr Arnold B. Pierce of Preferred Animal Nutrition Services Inc., says nutritionists formulating rations can soften their canola meal restrictions in least cost feed formulations. “This new information requires further validation but will allow formulating nutritionists to provide lower cost diets containing canola meal that still support high production levels,” Dr Pierce says.

Additional canola meal research was showcased this summer at the American Dairy Science Association Joint Annual Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri and at the Annual Poultry Science Association meeting in Corpus Christi, Texas. Researchers and industry professionals from across the US and Canada attended these meetings.

“The CCC prides itself in funding research that is applicable to the livestock nutrition community. If a swine nutritionist in Canada has easy access to canola meal and access to research demonstrating its full utilisation potential, then fewer high cost ingredients may need to be brought into the ration,” Ms Dyck says.

Canola meal also helps dairy performance

Canola meal got a boost this summer in the dairy sector, too. Researchers from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Sherbrooke, Quebec; University of California, Davis; South Dakota State University; University of Wisconsin; and University of Nevada,Reno were also at the American Dairy Science Association meeting in Kansas City.

This dairy team of researchers presented new abstracts that continue to demonstrate increases in milk production when dairy cows are fed canola meal over other protein ingredients, such as soybean meal.

These results have driven the dairy team of researchers to further examine the mechanisms in how the cow digests and utilizes canola meal. “Key findings indicate that canola meal provides the cow with higher levels of rumen bypass protein than is reported in popular literature,” Ms Dyck says.

Research highlighted during the recent meetings is funded by the Government of Canada and Canola Council of Canada.

Find out more at canolamazing.com and at www.canolacouncil.org/research/meal-research-projects