Project Applicant.
Vern Racz, Director, Prairie Feed Resource Centre, University of Saskatchewan.

Funding Allocation.
The Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Program (GHGMP) for Canadian Agriculture has allocated $2.1 million for beef sector projects over three years ending March 31, 2006. The GHGMP has contributed $48,000 toward this project.

The use of edible oils in livestock rations has been researched extensively over the years for a variety of reasons. Recently, there has been renewed interest because of production efficiency, reduced emissions of greenhouse gases, and the potential to produce meat and milk products with enhanced human health components.

Vegetable oils are more dense digestible energy sources that require less fermentation in the rumen for the energy to be released. Edible oils have been more commonly used in dairy rations as a way to increase energy in the ration. They eliminate the negative side effects and digestive disorders that can be associated with feeding more fermentable carbohydrates that are found in a high grain ration. With oils, producers have the benefit of increasing energy density in the diet without increasing the risk of acidosis.

“Using edible oil supplements in beef feeder cattle and mature cow rations is less common,” says Vern Racz, director of the Prairie Feed Resource Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. “But research has shown adding oil to beef rations can improve feed efficiency, positively alter the fatty acid composition of the meat and also significantly reduce rumen methane production.”

One component of the project is assembling the research literature and preparing a comprehensive manual for livestock nutritionists and producers on how edible oils can be used in rations to improve production efficiency and produce other desirable benefits.

A second component is to set up feeding demonstration projects involving feedlot cattle in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The demonstrations will be monitored and analysed to further measure the impact of supplemental oil in beef rations on beef production and feed efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the economics of feeding edible oils.

Potential impacts

Increased use of edible oils and/or oilseed in beef cattle rations has the potential to produce significant benefits for the livestock and oilseed industries, as well as for the environment.

An Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) research project found feeding whole sunflower seeds as a supplement reduced greenhouse gas (methane) emissions by 22 percent, while another project utilizing four percent supplemental canola oil reduced methane emissions by 33 percent. Even a 15 percent reduction in methane gas among 2.5 million head of feeder cattle would result in a reduction of 17.6 million kilograms of methane per year.

"There are tremendous economic benefits for both the livestock and the oilseed industries,” adds Racz. “For beef and dairy producers, high oil rations could create new marketing opportunities.”

Oil and fat affects the quality characteristics of both milk and meat. Added vegetable fat in the diet has a positive effect on levels of nutritionally important fatty acids, such as alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). However, the type of oil fed, whether it is canola, flax or sunflower, will effect the fatty acid composition differently.

ALA and CLA have important human health benefits. ALA helps prevent heart disease, while CLA enhances the immune system, increases the metabolic rate and helps prevent cancer.

“Added oil alters the fatty-acid composition of meat and milk, which presents an opportunity to produce products with specific quality characteristics,” says Racz. “For example, producers could have the opportunity to produce higher value ‘designer beef’.”

At the same time, Racz says, increasing the fat content in rations could provide canola, flax, sunflower and soybean producers across the country with a multi-million dollar market for a wide range of oil types and grades.

The planned manual has potential to help beef producers increase production efficiency and profitability. As well, the manual and broad dissemination of information regarding feeding edible oils could assist with the development of “branded” beef carcass products of higher value to producers.

Plan of action

A co-ordinator has been hired to assemble relevant research literature on oilseed use in cattle diets, while researchers at AAFC Brandon and Lethbridge will co-author the manual. The manual should be available by mid-2005.

The feedlot demonstrations are currently in the planning stages and targeted to begin late in 2004.