"An Update on Canola Meal Utilization in Swine Rations" was among the topics discussed earlier this month as part of the 2017 Manitoba Swine Seminar.

Dr. Martin Nyachoti, a Professor in the Animal Science Department of the University of Manitoba, says the perception has been that, because canola meal contains a high level of fibre, you can't use a lot of it in the diet however, while it is true that canola meal used to have high levels of antinutritional factors, new canola varieties and new processing techniques have taken care of many of those concerns and, if diets are formulated properly, the high fibre isn't a problem.

Dr Martin Nyachoti-University of Manitoba:

Canola is a good source of protein.

It's considered a protein supplement because it has about 40 percent protein but it does also bring other nutrients such as phosphorus, it has a very high content of phosphorus and it does have a significant amount of energy.

It is used in the industry and it has been used for a long time but we think more of it could be used.
The key with any diet is that the animal needs to be able to eat the feed.

So as long as they can consume the amount of feed that's good and number two, as long those diets are formulated properly we can use a lot more canola meal than what we have always believed to be the case.

For example, today I talked about levels of upwards of 25 percent in a nursery pig diet.
That's very very high, than what anybody else would have thought about, including myself, only a few years ago.

Dr Nyachoti says the impact on profitability of including higher levels of canola meal in the ration will depend largely on the cost of the competing ingredients but, considering there's a lot of canola meal produced in Manitoba and in western Canada, the economics would tend to favor its utilization because we have a lot of it around.