Research conducted by the University of Manitoba indicates pork producers can include much higher levels of canola meal in the diets of nursery pigs than previously believed without impacting performance.
On behalf of the Canola Council of Canada, with funding provided through the Canola Cluster, researchers with the University of Manitoba have been evaluating increased inclusions of canola meal in nursery pig diets.
The topic, “Canola Meal: How Much Can a Weaned Pig Handle” will be discussed as part of Hog and Poultry Days, 2012 slated for December 5 and 6 in Winnipeg.
Dr. Martin Nyachoti, an animal science professor with the University of Manitoba, explains researchers compared the performance of pigs fed meal from two types of canola, assessed the digestibility of the nutrients and energy contents of the meal and conducted a series of growth performance studies to evaluate the effect of increasing levels of canola meal in nursery pig diets on performance.
I think the most important findings that we’ve got from these studies that we’ve been doing is being able to show that we can include a lot more canola meal in nursery pig diets without compromising performance.
Considering that the general trend in the industry has been over the years that you don’t include canola meal in nursery pig diets or if you did you don’t go beyond five percent.
We’ve done studies looking at inclusion of canola meal up to 25 percent and shown that pigs are still able to perform comparatively to the control group.
The key here is that the diets have to be formulated very carefully in terms of energy supply and amino acid supply in the diets.
Dr. Nyachoti says key is how diets are formulated.
He suggests diets have to be formulated on the basis of the net energy system and they have to be formulated on the basis of standardized ileal amino acid supply in the diet in order for the pigs to be able to perform optimally.
