SPONSORED BY CANOLA COUNCIL OF CANADA

By ESSI EVANS*

*Dr. Essi Evans is president, Essi Evans Technical Advisory Services.

Most readers are likely aware that canola meal is a good source of methionine relative to many other vegetable proteins (Table 1). Nevertheless, feed formulators are often surprised to find the amino acid profile of canola meal is well suited to the needs of poultry and swine, in addition to dairy cows.

1. Methionine levels in several vegetable proteins (% of total protein)*

Vegetable protein source

Canola meal

Corn distillers grains

Corn gluten meal

Field peas

Lupins

Soybean meal

Sunflower meal

Wheat distillers grains

*http://ajinomoto-eurolysine.com/feedstuffs-amino-acid-database.html

Poultry

Let's use the broiler chicken as an example. In a relatively recent review of amino acid requirements, Applegate and Angel (2008) delineated the requirements of growing broilers by week of age, based on research conducted since the National Research Council (NRC) publication.

On average for all weekly time periods, and assuming a 21% protein diet, canola meal matched the birds' requirements, with only small shortfalls in methionine and arginine. With methionine levels higher than most other vegetable sources, it is apparent that this protein can efficiently supply a large portion of the amino acid needs of growing broilers.

Swine

Recently, Tokach et al. (2012) provided a review of the amino acid needs of growing pigs. These researchers summarized findings from 80 manuscripts that were published in the preceding 10-year period. Lysine is generally the first limiting amino acid for swine. Because of this, it is usual practice in the swine industry to express requirements for other essential amino acids as a function of lysine, and in descending importance.

Table 3 provides a comparison of requirements to the canola meal supply. If lysine needs were met with canola meal, all remaining essential amino acids would be in excess. A diet containing canola meal as the main protein source, supplemented with lysine, would handily conform to the requirements of pigs for growth, and minimize overages in supply.

Dairy

A plethora of recent research has demonstrated the value of canola meal as a protein source for dairy cows. Canola meal provides a significant amount of rumen undegraded protein (RUP), as illustrated in Table 4.

Additionally, the RUP that is provided has an amino acid profile that is similar to the amino acid profile of milk (Table 5). The marginal amino acids are methionine, followed by isoleucine. This does not take into consideration the amino acids required for maintenance, growth and fetal development, but does strongly suggest that canola has the ability to support milk production.

The significance of this is not new. Schingoethe (1991) clearly demonstrated the relevance of the amino acid profile almost 25 years ago (Figure)!

References

Applegate, T.J., and R. Angel. 2008. Protein & Amino Acid Requirements for Poultry. USDA, NRCS Feed Management Factsheet.

Canola Council of Canada. 2009. Canola Meal Feed Industry Guide. 4th Edition.

Hedqvist, H., and P. Uden. 2006. Measurement of soluble protein degradation in the rumen. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. 126:1-21.

National Research Council. 2001. Nutrient Requirements of Dairy Cattle. National Research Council, Washington, D.C.

Paz, H.A., T.J. Klopfenstein, D. Hostetler, S.C. Fernando, E. Castillo-Lopez and P.J. Kononoff. 2014. Ruminal degradation and intestinal digestibility of protein and amino acids in high-protein feedstuffs commonly used in dairy diets. J. Dairy Sci. 97:6485-6498.

Schingoethe, D.J. 1991. Protein quality, amino acid supplementation in dairy cattle explored. Feedstuffs 63:11.

Tokach, M., J. DeRouchey, S. Dritz, B. Goodband and J. Nelssen. 2012. Amino acid requirements of growing pigs. Kansas State Univ. Proc. Swine Profitability Conf. p. 39-55.

USDA. 2011. National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. Release 27. United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Md.