Nutritional composition and digestibility by 80-kg to 100-kg pigs of prepress solvent-extracted meals from low glucosinolate Brassica juncea, B. napus and B. rapa seed and of solvent-extracted soybean meal

Abstract

Seed of Brassica napus canola (cv. AC Excel), B. rapa canola (cv. AC Parkland), and B. juncea canola (line J90-4253) was oil-extracted in a prepress solvent pilot plant. The three canola meals and soybean meal (SBM) (commercial) were fed in four replicates of a digestibility trial to evaluate their digestibility. The meals were mixed with a nutritionally adequate barley-wheat-SBM basal diet at levels of 15 and 30%. Chromic oxide (Cr2O3) was included at 0.5% of the diet as a chemical marker. Eighteen hybrid gilts, approximately 90 kg, were randomized to the first two replicates involving nine diets, including the basal diet, and this allotment was repeated. Brassica juncea meal (air-dry) contained 43.85% crude protein of 82% digestibility and 18.33 MJ kg−1 of gross energy of 71% digestibility. The corresponding values for B. napus AC Excel meal were 41.78, 81, 18.64 and 64; for B. rapa AC Parkland meal 40.05, 79, 18.45 and 71, and for SBM 45.10, 88, 17.28 and 82. Digestible energy values were: B. juncea 13.9, B. napus 13.0, B. rapa 14.1 and SBM 15.9 MJ kg−1. Key words: Canola meal, B. juncea meal, composition, digestibility, pigs