Canola meal price

Canola meal is a protein feed, fed to raise a ration's crude-protein content. On a dry-matter basis it runs about 39.5% crude protein and 74% TDN, roughly 0.76 Mcal of net energy for lactation per pound of dry matter, at about 90% dry matter as fed. Those figures come from Virginia Cooperative Extension, Agronomy Handbook Part XIV, from NASEM Beef Cattle 2016. The leaderboard uses them to convert this week's board price into a cost per pound of protein and per pound of energy, so it can be ranked against corn and soybean meal. Prices are quoted per ton, and the cheapest board price is not the cheapest fed price once freight and moisture are counted (see the FOB-vs-delivered guide). Canola meal is left over once canola seed is crushed for its oil, and in the US that crush increasingly runs at plants built for the renewable diesel and biodiesel boom, meaning oil demand, not the meal, is driving new crush capacity. Seed comes mostly from Canada and the northern Plains, North Dakota chief among US growing states. Modern canola varieties are bred low in the glucosinolates and erucic acid that limited older rapeseed meal, letting it be fed more freely than its reputation suggests. Dairy nutritionists particularly favor it for milk production response, and its price generally tracks soybean meal, the protein source it substitutes against most directly.