Benefits of canola meal – recent research Faciola has been involved in canola meal (CM) and soybean meal (SBM) research for many years at his current university and also at the US Dairy Forage Research Center and the Uni- versity of Nevada. He has co-authored six articles in the pres- tigious Journal of Dairy Science on the effects of feeding can- ola meal to dairy cattle. Faciola and his colleagues found in a recent study that replacing SBM in the dairy ration with CM boosts milk production by about 1 kg per cow per day. “There is also less urea in the milk, which means that the nitrogen in CM meal is being utilised by the cow to a greater extent com- pared to SBM,” he explains. “And beyond this higher nutri- ent-use efficiency, less excretion of nitrogen in manure is also better for the environment.” The main reason for the more ef- ficient use of nitrogen, he says, is higher levels of the amino acid methionine in CM compared to SBM. He and his col- leagues have also found that replacing SBM meal with CM in- creases dry matter feed intake and, as a result, the protein level in the milk. In 2019, in a preliminary experiment, Univer- sity of California researchers found that SBM should be limit- ed to 2-3% of the ration’s dry matter (compared to CM) to en- sure adequate health and performance of dairy cattle, notes Brittany Dyck, senior manager of canola utilisation at the Canola Council of Canada (CCC). This is an industry associa- tion that covers all the links in the canola value chain. “In a follow-up trial, the group investigated the effects of giving dairy cattle a source of methionine combined with SBM, since CM is a rich source of this amino acid,” she says. “As in the first experiment, milk production was reduced when some of the CM was substituted by SBM. And, while the inclusion of a ru- men-protected methionine source was beneficial in increas- ing milk production in cattle fed SBM, it failed to increase milk to the same degree as CM.” Dyck notes that this was an early lactation study and there were no treatment differences in the condition scores of the cows. This demonstrates, she says, that CM can be used effectively during this period in a cow’s cycle when cows are producing at very high levels. An- other 2019 trial on CM and SBM was conducted at South Da- kota State University. Dairy cows received diets that con- tained either 21% or 27% starch and, at each level, the diets were balanced for protein with SBM or CM. Milk production increased by 2 kg as starch was increased in the SBM meal diet, but milk production increased by 3.1 kg with higher starch levels in diets containing CM.
Production of resources As canola meal has been proven to deliver higher milk pro- duction, better quality milk and less impact on the environ- ment in the dairy sector, the CCC has done a lot of work over the last decade to spread the word. The organization has made resources available to dairy nutritionists in the USA and several Asian countries including China. A main resource is the Canola Meal Dairy Feed Guide. Dyck notes that with more
research on canola meal currently being undertaken in Cana- da and the USA, dissemination of findings to the dairy indus- try is top priority for the CCC. For their part, Faciola and his colleagues are about to publish a study on the energy con- tent of CM and will continue to investigate which ingredients are best combined with CM in dairy cow diets -- and at what levels -- to further boost milk production. “These ingredients were chosen in the past and their levels optimised in terms of how they performed with SBM,” he explains. “We are excited to build on our research and discover which ingredients and which amounts are optimal when combined with canola meal.” In a study published earlier this year, conducted at the US Dairy Forage Research Center in Wisconsin, Faciola’s group tested diets containing 60% forage, where ratios of 50:10, 30:30 and 10:50 alfalfa silage to corn silage were balanced with either SBM or CM. “Because CM contains less protein and more fibre than SBM, soyhulls, which are highly-digestible, were added to the SBM diets in order to avoid changing any other ingredients,” Faciola notes. “Milk production increased as corn silage was increased in the three diets but was signifi- cantly greater with CM than with SBM. There were no differ- ences in the feed efficiency of the two protein sources. And, in that study, no differences were found in milk fat yield from cows fed with CM compared with SBM, but CM produced a higher milk protein yield.”
▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 28, No. 4, 2020
It was found that replacing SBM in the dairy ration with CM boosts milk pro- duction by about 1 kg per cow per day.
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PHOTO: CANOLA COUNCIL OF CANADA
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