A big new market could be on the horizon for prairie flaxseed growers.
A major international feed manufacturer is conducting feeding trials in
the United States to look at the benefits of feeding flaxseed to hogs.
If those trials show positive results, 60 million U.S. hogs could find
themselves dining on the tiny brown oilseed.
“This is potentially very exciting,” said Barry Hall, president of the
Flax Council of Canada.
“Obviously the U.S. is a big potential marketplace.”
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The council is working with Canadian-owned Ridley Inc. on a two-year
feeding trial to determine whether sows that are fed flaxseed produce
more piglets.
The trial will be conducted at a hog production facility in Iowa.
The experience in Canada, in academic studies and in commercial
operations, indicates the answer is yes.
Hall said research at the University of Manitoba and in on-farm feeding
trials shows that sows fed rations containing five percent flaxseed
produce between 0.5 and one percent more piglets per litter.
The research and on-farm experience has also shown that a flax-enriched
diet results in heavier piglets, improved farrowing rates and better
weaning-to-breeding numbers.
However, Hall said the council won’t make sweeping claims about the
benefits of flax until more scientific investigation is done.
“We want numbers that can be used to stand behind the results,” he
said.
“You can do a lot of harm if you make claims if you’re not right.”
One person who is convinced of flax’s benefits is Lauren Wiebe, who
runs Topeaka Farms Ltd., a 2,600 hog operation at St. Malo, Man.
In 1998 he participated in a U of M feeding trial in which 200 sows
were fed a regular diet, 200 were fed a five percent flax ration and
200 were fed a 10 percent flax ration.
The 10 percent ration resulted in a too-rapid weight gain. Animals had
to be removed due to obesity, sows were too big to farrow and
stillbirth numbers increased.
But at five percent, there was an increase of about one-half piglet per
litter. The piglets were heavier at birth and at time of weaning, and
95 percent of the sows were bred within seven days of weaning, up from
the usual rate of about 90 percent.
The results were so impressive that Wiebe decided to stay with the flax
rations after the two-year feeding trial ended.
“It really pays dividends for us,” he said.
Prior to feeding flax, his farm averaged 19.5 piglets per sow per year.
Now it averages 24.5 piglets per mated female and 23.5 on a full
inventory basis.
A research document posted on the U of M’s website says that feeding
oils rich in linoleic and linolenic acid to pregnant sows appears to
enhance embryo survival, influence nervous system development in
embryos, enhance immune function and reduce the incidence of
inflammatory disease in piglets.
The study, which is funded by the flax council and the federal
government, will follow sows through three production cycles. They will
be fed a five percent flax ration in a corn-based diet.
The trials are being conducted by Hubbard Feeds, which is owned by
Ridley Inc., at Black Jack Pork in Keosaqua, Iowa.
