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 each USDA report 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.

The oil is what the crusher is buying. Canola seed runs about 44 percent oil, and roughly 56 percent of the seed ends up as meal, according to the Canola Council of Canada. The Council notes that countries importing canola seed mainly do so for the oil, the most valuable component, with the meal going to their feed industries afterward. Meal volume follows oil demand and crush capacity, and a strong meal bid alone does not bring more seed to the crusher.

The United States is Canada's meal market. The Council lists the United States as the top market for Canadian canola oil and meal, and its feeding guide shows most of Canada's meal exports crossing the U.S. border, where meal sold directly goes primarily to the top dairy-producing states. Canadian canola meal trades in bulk as mash or pellets, under rules set by the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association. The Council also notes canola and rapeseed meals together are the second most widely traded protein ingredients after soybean meal, which is the product U.S. buyers weigh it against. The canola meal vs soybean meal table on this page shows the gap in the latest USDA week.

Dairy pays for milk, beef for degradable protein. The Council reports that decades of research show canola meal raising milk production by about a liter per cow per day compared with diets built on other protein meals such as soybean meal and cottonseed meal, and that it carries more rumen-undegraded, or bypass, protein than many common protein sources. NDSU Extension describes a second buyer in beef: cows on low-protein forage or dormant range, plus feedlot cattle on corn-based diets, which use canola meal as supplemental rumen-degradable protein at 40 to 44 percent crude protein. Outside the United States the mix is broader; the Council notes meal from seed crushed abroad goes to pigs, poultry and fish.

Two processes, two meals. NDSU notes expeller processing can leave 8 to 15 percent residual oil in the meal, while solvent extraction, by far the most common method, removes all but about half a percent. Expeller meal carries more fat and, NDSU notes, less protein as a result, so a canola meal quote is only comparable to another when both came off the same process.

Canola meal vs soybean meal. Canola meal runs lower in crude protein and energy than soybean meal, so more is needed to match its protein, and its fiber limits use in young monogastrics. Modern canola is bred low in the glucosinolates that constrained older rapeseed meal; NDSU Extension covers oilseed meals in ruminant diets.