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October 2019
Dairy professionals now have access to a new, comprehensive guide informed by recent research focused specifically on canola meal in dairy production, as well as a complete listing of nutrient values. The Canola Council of Canada (CCC) released this guide to complement the more robust Canola Meal Feeding Guide that covers all species.
“Within the past decade, there’s been a significant amount of new research conducted by prominent dairy scientists,” says Brittany Dyck, CCC’s senior manager of canola utilization. “This guide distills all that information, and provides readers with an extensive bibliography for more in-depth review.”
Since 2011, there have been four important meta-analyses conducted addressing different aspects of the performance of cows provided canola meal as compared to other vegetable proteins. “It was important to incorporate the distinct findings of these studies in the dairy guide,” says Dyck.
Dr. Glen Broderick, emeritus professor at the USDA Forage Laboratory in Wisconsin and a major contributor to the latest research states “canola meal must have been designed with the dairy cow in mind. Our research, along with that of others, clearly shows that the amino acid profile of canola meal supports the unique needs of the lactating dairy cow and can easily be used as the only added protein source for high producing cows. This guide should help the industry to gain a better understanding of this ingredient.”
The guide also includes recent results from an early lactation feeding study, conducted by Dr. Ken Kalscheur, also with the USDA Forage Laboratory. This study showed that canola meal is highly palatable and supports greater and more consistent feed intake than soybean meal, resulting in greater milk production.
Other important research findings in the guide include:
• Data on protein degradation, fibre digestion and amino acid supply of canola meal in the rumen
• Up-to-date nutrient profiles, suitable for use in formulation software
In the past 10 years, 30 university feeding trials have been conducted to examine production differences when canola meal is fed versus other protein sources, including soybean meal, distillers’ grains and cottonseed meal. This ongoing research is part of the Canola AgriScience Cluster, with funding provided under Growing Forward 2, the Canola Council of Canada, Alberta Canola, SaskCanola and the Manitoba Canola Growers.
The 2019 Canola Meal Dairy Feed Guide is free to download at canolamazing.com, along with the 2019 guide for all livestock species and aquaculture.
For more information:
Brittany Dyck
Senior Manager, Canola Utilization, Canola Council of Canada
dyckb@canolacouncil.org
