Canola Meal Breakthrough to Benefit Pork Producers

A major technological breakthrough will help pork producers use canola meal more efficiently and give them the potential to use more of it in pig feeding rations.

The breakthrough came in a joint research project conducted by Pork CRC and the Australian Oilseeds Federation and could save the industry more than $450,000 annually through using canola meal more efficiently.

Using Near Infrared (NIR) technology, the research developed rapid analysis technology to assess how well pigs digest canola meal, allowing the industry to rapidly and cheaply assess meal quality and value.

"This allows canola crushing plants to use on-site analysis to assess the effects of oil seed crushing conditions on canola meal protein digestibility," Project Coordinator, John Spragg, said.

"The technology lets feed manufacturers and pig producers assess canola meal quality and adjust feed formulations to account for lysine availability," he said.

The project has already paid off, through supplying meal quality data to oilseed processors and Pork CRC is initiating a commercialisation plan for the technology with NIR calibrations for reactive lysine being made available to industry.

Stockfeed manufacturers and suppliers and pork producers interested in learning more about the technology are invited to email John Spragg.