High protein canola meal appropriate for gestating and lactating sows

URBANA, Ill. – New high-protein canola-meal products are available for inclusion in swine diets, but until now, it wasn’t clear how these products would affect gestating and lactating sows. A recent University of Illinois study demonstrates that both high-protein and conventional canola meal can substitute soybean meal up to 100% without detrimental effects.  


“Results of our experiment confirmed that if you provide all the digestible amino acids that are needed, it doesn’t matter where they come from; the pigs don’t care if they come from soybean meal, conventional canola, or high-protein canola meal. We can take all the soybean meal out – we did 50 or 100% replacement of the soybean meal with either source of canola meal – and the sows did exactly the same,” says Hans H. Stein, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at U of I, and co-author of the Journal of Animal Science study.


Stein and his co-authors, Yanhong Liu of UC Davis and Maryane Oliveira, fed experimental diets to 180 sows during gestation and lactation. The five diets within each period consisted of a control diet of corn and soybean meal; experimental diets with high-protein canola meal replacing 50 or 100% of the soybean meal; and with conventional canola meal replacing 50 or 100% of the soybean meal.


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