By Bruce Cochrane
Research being conducted on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc has shown the inclusion of canola press-cake or canola expeller in the diets of early weaned pigs to be an economically viable alternative.
Unlike canola meal, canola press-cake and canola expeller are produced without the final step of solvent extraction of oil and desolventization toasting, resulting in much more residual oil remaining in these feedstuffs.
Dr. Ruurd Zijlstra, the chair of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Sciences with the University of Alberta, explains you could have 15 to 20 percent of residual oil remaining in canola press-cake or about 10 percent in canola expeller compared to about 2 percent in canola meal, making these products particularly attractive for inclusion in the diets of young pigs with a high energy demand.
Dr. Ruurd Zijlstra-University of Alberta:
On the young pigs we're quite surprised in how well pigs can tolerate these novel feedstuffs.
We've gone as high as 20 percent in diets for pigs 1 or 2 weeks after weaning.
I would not recommend to do this at weaning but, once you have gotten the pigs to eat, 1 or 2 weeks later, you could switch actually to substantial levels of these canola co-products and still maintain animal performance.
Then in grow finish pigs, it's really the finances that will determine how much of these co-products will you include.
Generally in the energy dependant phase of growth, so when pigs are in the grower phase up to 50 to 60 kilograms, it is likely cost advantageous to add more of these co-products into the diets because you provide a lot of energy.
Of course, it depends on the price that you pay for the products, but then I would very comfortably recommend to use these co-products into diets for latter stage nursery and grow finish pigs.
Dr. Zijlstra acknowledges, for markets that have concerns about the fat quality of the pork, you don't want to add a lot of plant based oils to your diets for finisher pigs.
Source: Farmscape