Canola meal sales to the United States recovered from the salmonella setback of 2009, says an industry official.
Canadian crushers were shipping an average of just under 160,000 tonnes of meal a month into that market in 2008.
Exports fell as low as 60,000 tonnes a month in early 2010 during the height of a crisis sparked by the detection of salmonella in Canadian canola meal shipments.
That two-year market disruption appears to be behind the industry as all of Canada’s crushers are back exporting product to the U.S. market in compliance with a salmonella policy guideline, Les Nernberg, canola meal manager with the Canola Council of Canada, told growers attending Crop Production Week.
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The latest export data shows monthly sales have jumped above 240,000 tonnes, which is well above the pre-salmonella average due to the fact there is a lot more canola being crushed in Canada these days.
The U.S. is by far Canada’s most important meal market, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of annual exports.
The California dairy industry consumes about half of that. The council surveyed 356 U.S. dairy nutritionists last summer to find out what they thought about the feed ingredient.
“There was a good, strong awareness of canola meal. Many were actually using canola meal within their feeding programs,” said Nernberg.
The nutritionists said it has a more consistent nutrient profile than distillers grain, excellent protein quality and a good amino acid profile.
Weaknesses included poor availability in some places, inconsistent physical appearance, lower protein content than soy, high cost for the nutrients delivered, poor digestibility and lower energy content than soybean meal and distiller’s grains.
Corn ethanol plants are churning out such a huge volume of distiller’s grains that it will soon overtake soybean meal as the second biggest feed ingredient in the U.S.
“That is a big threat in the use of canola meal,” said Nernberg.
To help combat that threat the council has hired a public relations firm to correct misconceptions about canola meal and to increase its value as a dairy feed ingredient.
The U.S. produces 160 million tonnes of animal feed annually, making it the world’s largest feed market, but it will soon be eclipsed by China.
That is why the council was also promoting canola meal in China last year, conducting feeding trials in conjunction with the country’s five largest dairy firms. Those companies account for 75 percent of the country’s dairy production.
The trials, which were completed last spring, helped convince Chinese nutritionists there are no feed intake issues with canola meal. They were skeptical because cows tend to reject bitter-tasting rapeseed meal.
One company realized a feed cost savings of $1 million by incorporating the ingredient in feed rations and two companies witnessed a 0.5 to one kilogram per cow per day increase in milk production.
“This information was able to give them confidence that they could indeed use canola meal in their feeding programs,” said Nernberg.
In addition to its work in China, the council hosted a delegation of 26 Chinese government officials, academics and dairy industry employees who toured various facilities.
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