Canola meal is the second most used plant protein source, after soybean meal, in livestock diets. The production of canola meal involves a step in which the meal is treated with steam for 35 to 50 minutes at temperatures from 95 to 115°C. The application of heat and moisture to feedstuffs results in the Maillard reaction, which reduces the concentration and digestibility of amino acids. Lysine is particularly susceptible to the Maillard reaction, so it is important to determine accurate digestible lysine levels in feedstuffs that may be heat damaged. Amino acid analysis that does not account for lysine recovered from acid hydrolysis of Maillard products may overestimate the amount of digestible lysine in a sample. Therefore, methods other than simple lysine analysis must be used when assessing feed that may be heat damaged.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of heat damage on the digestibility of crude protein and amino acids in canola meal fed to growing pigs. Another objective of the experiment was to develop regression equations to predict the concentration of standardized ileal digestible (SID) amino acids in canola meal.

Sunflower meal and cottonseed meal can be used in place of soybean meal as protein sources for swine diets. The production of both involves heat treatment, to extract oil from sunflower seeds and cottonseeds and to reduce antinutritional factors. When heat is applied to feed ingredients in the presence of moisture, a series of chemical reactions known as the Maillard reaction may be initiated.  In the Maillard reaction, amino acids and reducing sugars combine to form indigestible compounds known as Amadori compounds. These amino acids are therefore not available to the pigs. Lysine is particularly susceptible to the Maillard reaction. It is important to know the extent of heat damage in feed ingredients so that diets may be formulated that supply the appropriate amounts of digestible amino acids to pigs.

Little information is available about the effects of heat processing on amino acid digestibility in sunflower meal and cottonseed meal. Furthermore, equations to predict the concentration of digestible amino acids in sunflower meal and cottonseed meal from the analyzed nutrient composition have not been reported. Two experiments were conducted to determine the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of amino acids in sunflower meal and in cottonseed meal fed to growing pigs, and to test if regression equations could be developed to predict the concentration of SID lysine in sunflower meal and cottonseed meal.

Canola meal is the defatted meal that remains after oil has been extracted from the seeds of the rapeseed plant, Brassica napus.  Canola meal is high in crude protein and amino acids relative to most plant protein sources, and the amino acids in canola meal are well digested by pigs. However, it is also relatively high in fiber, which reduces energy digestibility and digestible energy concentration. New varieties of Brassica napus with a thinner seed coat have been hybridized, which contain less fiber and more protein than conventional rapeseed. The meal produced from these varieties is known as high protein canola meal. No data exist for the digestibility of energy in this source of high protein canola mealwhen fed to pigs. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy and the concentrations of digestible and metabolizable energy in two sources of high protein canola meal (CM-HP1 and CM-HP2) fed to growing pigs, and to compare these values with values for conventional canola meal (CM-CV) and soybean meal (SBM).

Animal protein sources such as fish meal and protein plasma are often used in diets fed to weanling pigs because the amino acids in these sources are highly digestible and because animal protein sources do not contain the anti-nutritional factors present in soybean meal. However, the cost of fish meal has increased in recent years and there is, therefore, a need for less expensive alternatives.

Chicken meal and and poultry by-product meal are protein ingredients that have a concentration of amino acids similar to that of fish meal. Poultry by-product meal is produced from the offal of carcasses of slaughtered poultry and includes feet, necks, undeveloped eggs, and intestines. Chicken meal is prepared from clean flesh and skin of chickens without or with bone derived from the whole carcass of poultry. The quality of chicken meal and poultry by-product meal depends on the quality of the rendered parts to produce them. Ultrapro is produced from enzymatically hydrolyzed porcine intestines, and AV-E Digest is produced by enzymatically hydrolyzing whole spent hens and extruded egg albumins. Insufficient data exist on the digestibility of crude protein and amino acids in these ingredients.  Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the digestibility of crude protein and amino acids in chicken meal, poultry by-product meal, Ultrapro, and AV-E Digest when fed to weanling pigs and to compare these values with values obtained for soybean meal.

Research has shown that grinding cereal grains in diets fed to pigs into smaller particle sizes improves growth performance. Feed ground to smaller particle sizes has more surface area on which digestive enzymes can work, so digestibility of energy and nutrients that are enzymatically digested may also  improved. Generating specific data on energy and nutrient digestibility will help determine the optimal particle size for feed ingredients.

An experiment was conducted to determine the concentration of digestible and metabolizable energy and to measure the apparent (ATTD) and standardized total tract digestibility (STTD) of phosphorus by growing pigs fed diets containing corn that was ground to different particle sizes.

Canola meal is produced from the rapeseed plant, a relative of broccoli and mustard. Rapeseed which has been hybridized to be low in both unpalatable glucosinolates and toxic erucic acid is called canola in Canada and the United States and 00-rapeseed in Europe. Oil can be removed from canola or 00-rapeseeds in two ways. Solvent extraction results in the production of canola meal or 00-rapeseed meal, while mechanical expelling results in the production of canola expellers or 00-rapeseed expellers. The meals and expellers have high concentrations of crude protein and amino acids, and can be used as protein sources in swine diets. An experiment was conductedto compare crude protein and amino digestibility between North American canola meal and European 00-rapeseed meal, and between 00-rapeseed meal and 00-rapeseed expellers.

Distillers dried grains with solubles, or DDGS, is a co-product of the rapidly growing ethanol industry. DDGS has been increasingly used for swine diets because of its affordability and nutritive value. Corn DDGS is high in energy, amino acids, and digestible phosphorus.

In the last few years, more ethanol plants have started  to use centrifugation to extract oil from DDGS for use in the production of biodiesel. The resulting DDGS products contain less fat than conventional DDGS. Reduced-fat DDGS products would be expected to have decreased digestible (DE) and metabolizable (ME) energy concentrations compared with  conventional DDGS, but energy values for these products have not yet been reported.

An experiment was conducted to determine the concentrations of DE and ME in three sources of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) containing different fat concentrations. In addition, the effect of supplementing diets containing reduced-fat DDGS products with corn oil to increase DE and ME concentrations was determined.

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 amino acids 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.

Oilseeds and oilseed meals also provide phosphorus to the diet. However, most of the phosphorus in these sources is bound to phytate, and is not available to pigs. An experiment was performed to determine the standardized total tract digestibility (STTD) of phosphorus in canola, cottonseed, and sunflower products, and to discover how the addition of phytase influences the STTD of phosphorus. The apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of calcium and the effect of adding phytase on ATTD of calcium were also measured.

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).