Establishing canola meal as the protein supplement of choice for growing beef cattle and dairy heifers

油菜籽种植面积的增长（2012年超过2000万英亩）促进了加拿大油菜籽压榨行业的扩张。例如，仅在萨斯喀彻温省，破碎能力已增长到超过450万吨，每年产生超过250万吨的油菜籽粉。因此，油菜籽粉的供应大大增加，寻找新的市场对油菜籽行业来说比以往任何时候都更加重要。在这一点上，绝大多数关于奶牛日粮中油菜籽粉的研究都是针对泌乳奶牛的。虽然这是一个重要的市场，但在加拿大，由于乳制品行业的性质，其规模有限。相比之下，针对生长牛，特别是肉牛/小母牛或生长替代奶牛小母牛的蛋白质需求的工作有限。两者都是重要的潜在市场。例如，加拿大约有444，000头奶牛，而牛肉部门每年约有410万头肉牛和400万头小牛。每年还有250多万头供屠宰的牛。该项目将尝试将油菜籽粉作为生长肉牛和奶牛的首选蛋白质补充剂。为了做到这一点，它将比较性能和瘤胃发酵和微生物蛋白流在生长牛相对于其他常用的蛋白质来源。通过这样做，它将为油菜籽粉提供一个替代的全国市场，这将有助于支持油菜籽粉定价，使油菜籽加工商受益，并最终通过提高油菜籽粉的价格和需求，支持油菜籽种植者提高价格。

The growth in canola seeded acreage (>20 million acres in 2012) has facilitated the expansion of the Canadian canola crushing industry. For example in Saskatchewan alone, crushing capacity has grown to exceed 4.5 million tonnes generating in excess of 2.5 million tonnes of canola meal annually. As a result, the supply of canola meal has expanded greatly and finding new markets is becoming more important than ever for the canola sector. To this point, the vast majority of the research on canola meal in cattle diets has been with lactating dairy cattle. While this is an important market, in Canada it is limited in size due to the nature of the dairy industry. In contrast there has been limited work targeting the protein needs of growing cattle, specifically beef steers/heifers or growing replacement dairy heifers. Both are important potential markets. For example, there are approximately 444,000 dairy heifers in Canada while the beef sector consists of ~ 4.1 million beef cows and ~ 4 million calves annually. There is also in excess of 2.5 million head of cattle fed for slaughter annually. This project will attempt to establish canola meal as the preferred protein supplement for growing beef cattle and dairy heifers. In order to do so, it will compare performance and rumen fermentation and microbial protein flow in growing cattle relative to other commonly used protein sources. By doing so it will provide an alternative national market for canola meal that will help support canola meal pricing, benefiting both the canola processor and ultimately through higher prices and demand for canola meal, it will support higher prices for canola growers.