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年达到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，压榨能力已增长到450多万吨，每年产生250多万吨油菜籽粕。因此，油菜籽粕的供应大大扩大，寻找新市场对油菜籽行业来说变得比以往任何时候都更加重要。到目前为止，绝大多数关于牛日粮中油菜籽粕的研究都是在哺乳奶牛身上进行的。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，它的规模有限。相比之下，针对生长牛，特别是肉牛/小母牛或替代奶牛生长的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，加拿大每年约有444,000头奶牛，而牛肉部门由约410万头肉牛和约400万头小牛组成。每年还有250多万头牛供屠宰。本项目将尝试将油菜籽粕作为生长中的肉牛和奶牛的首选蛋白质补充剂。为了做到这一点，它将比较生长牛的生产性能、瘤胃发酵和微生物蛋白质流量与其他常用蛋白质来源的关系。通过这样做，它将为菜籽粕提供一个可替代的全国市场，这将有助于支持菜籽粕定价，使菜籽粕加工商受益，并最终通过提高菜籽粕的价格和需求，为菜籽粕种植者提供更高的价格。

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.