Soybean meal is a high quality source of protein for swine diets. Due to the growth in global production of pigs and poultry, demand for soybeans is increasing rapidly, outpacing production. Therefore, other sources of plant protein are sometimes used in diets to supply indispensable AA to the animals.
The most abundant oilseeds produced in the world, aside from soybeans, are cottonseed, canola seed (rapeseed), and sunflower seed. These oilseeds may be fed as de-oiled meals, or the full fat seeds can be fed to increase the energy concentration of the diet.
There are no recent data on energy digestibility in canola, cotton, and sunflower products. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to measure the digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) in canola seeds (CS), canola meal (CM), cottonseed meal (CSM), sunflower seeds (SFS), sunflower meal (SFM), and dehulled sunflower meal (SFM-DH), and to compare these values to the DE and ME in soybean meal (SBM).
Experimental design
A total of 48 growing barrows with an average initial body weight of 44.8 kg were randomly allotted to 8 diets. One diet was based on corn and seven additional diets were formulated by mixing corn with CS, CM, CSM, SFS, SFM, SFM-DH, or SBM.
The concentrations of DE and ME in each of the oilseeds and oil seed meals were calculated as the difference between the DE and ME in the diets and the contribution of corn to the DE and ME in the diets.
Sunflower seeds and canola seeds had the greatest DE and ME content
When calculated on an as-fed or a DM basis, sunflower seeds had the greatest (P < 0.001) concentration of DE and ME among all ingredients (Table 1), followed by canola seeds and soybean meal. Corn had less DE than soybean meal, but did not differ from soybean meal in ME content. Canola meal had less DE and ME than corn, and the same concentration of ME as sunflower meal. Sunflower meal, dehulled sunflower meal, and canola seed meal did not differ from each other in DE and ME content, and had the least DE and ME concentration of the ingredients tested.
Key points
- The concentrations of DE and ME were greater in sunflower seeds and canola seeds than in any of the oilseed meals.
- Canola meal, cottonseed meal, sunflower meal, and dehulled sunflower meal all contained less DE and ME than soybean meal.
- Sunflower seeds and canola seeds are excellent sources of DE and ME in swine diets.
Table 1. Digestible (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) content in corn, canola seeds (CS), canola meal (CM), cottonseed meal (CSM), sunflower seeds (SFS), sunflower meal (SFM), dehulled sunflower meal (SFM-DH), and soybean meal (SBM) fed to growing pigs
|
|
Ingredient |
|
|||||||
|
Item |
Corn |
CS |
CM |
CSM |
SFS |
SFM |
SFM-DH |
SBM |
P-value |
|
As-fed basis |
|||||||||
|
GE, kcal/kg |
4,051 |
6,375 |
4,362 |
4,348 |
7,122 |
4,290 |
4,270 |
4,293 |
- |
|
DE, kcal/kg |
3,567d |
5,064b |
3,313e |
2,745f |
5,842a |
2,944f |
2,848f |
4,115c |
< 0.001 |
|
ME, kcal/kg |
3,481c |
4,803b |
2,998d |
2,459e |
5,492a |
2,725de |
2,631e |
3,676c |
< 0.001 |
|
DM basis |
|||||||||
|
GE, kcal/kg |
4,588 |
6,767 |
4,809 |
4,772 |
7,442 |
4,720 |
4,641 |
4,712 |
- |
|
DE, kcal/kg |
4,040d |
5,375b |
3,652e |
3,016f |
6,105a |
3,238f |
3,095f |
4,518c |
< 0.001 |
|
ME, kcal/kg |
3,942c |
5,098b |
3,306d |
2,700e |
5,739a |
2,998de |
2,860e |
4,035c |
< 0.001 |
a-fValues within a row lacking a common superscript letter are different (P < 0.05).
This report is based on unpublished research by D. A. Rodríguez, R. C. Sulabo, J. C. González-Vega, and H. H. Stein.