Results are in from the second year of a project feeding canola meal to cattle, and the weight gains were even more impressive in year two.
In 2021, Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association (SSGA) started a project where they looked at using canola meal as cattle feed and the results it had on average daily gain and cost per pound of gain on two ranches. Dwayne Summach, a livestock and feed extension specialist with the Ministry of Agriculture, reported on the study’s findings to conference goers at the 2022 SSGA annual general meeting in Assiniboia (for more details on the first year’s results, see the October 2022 issue of Canadian Cattlemen).
A year, later, at the SSGA AGM in Moose Jaw, Summach stood on stage again to provide an update on the project’s second year.
Read Also
Body condition, nutrition and vaccination for brood cows
One of the remarkable events of the past century related to ranching has been the genetic evolution of brood cows….
In 2022, Garner Deobald of Cedarlea Farms couldn’t participate due to the dry conditions in his area, near Hodgeville, Sask. But Michael Burgess of Circle Y Ranch was able to continue into the second year.
Summach says they made a few changes to the canola meal and salt content in 2022. In 2021, they fed 1.38 kg with a ratio of 80:20 canola meal to salt. In 2022 they fed 1.88 kg with a ratio of 85:15 canola meal to salt.
In 2021 on Burgess’s ranch, the control group’s average start weight was 914 lbs. and the end weight was 927 lbs. The supplement group’s average start weight was 902 lbs. and ended at 936 lbs. This means the control group’s average daily gain was 0.20 lb. per day, and the supplement group’s was 0.51.
In 2022, the control group’s average start weight was 908 lbs. and the end weight was 853 lbs. The supplement group’s start weight was 863 lbs. and the end weight was 913 lbs. The control group’s average daily gain was -0.87 lb. and the supplement group’s was 0.80 lb. per day.
“Way more dramatic change in results,” Summach says. “So the animals that weren’t being supplemented lost nearly nine-tenths of a pound a day. The animals that were being supplemented gained eight-tenths of a pound a day. That’s a pretty big swing in terms of productivity.”
Despite this, Summach says the blend was quite expensive, costing Burgess $1,350 a tonne, and as a result the supplement was over $1.27 a head. In total, the cost of gain was $3.21 a pound.
While Summach recognizes this isn’t very cost-effective, he says he thinks producers could still have the same result while feeding less canola meal.
“When you do the math, they needed to be getting about six-tenths a pound a day to meet their protein requirement,” Summach says. “So we were probably overshooting what we were doing, but we had a structure in place and we were following (it).”
Summach is also involved with another research project regarding canola meal — this one at the Swift Current Research Development Centre through the province’s Agricultural Demonstration of Practices and Technology program.
In Swift Current, they did three treatments: control, control and canola meal, and control with wheat-based dried distillers grain pellets.
They started on October 7 and ended November 7 in 2022, had four weaned calves per paddock, and nine paddocks. They stopped earlier than planned because of a heavy snowfall at the end of October.
“The animals that didn’t get supplemented lost weight. The animals that were supplemented basically maintained weight,” Summach says.
He says they plan on continuing this research for another year, but with yearlings instead of weaned calves.
