The characteristics of rapeseed are primarily unpretentiousness in care and high productivity. It is possible to grow this culture in Russia in almost all regions - from the central ones, to Siberia and the Urals. Rapeseed oil is widely used in the food industry, in the manufacture of cosmetics, in medicine. The product of its processing - meal - is a very valuable type of animal feed.
What is a
This type of feed is obtained at enterprises using prepress technology. Oil in factories is made from rapeseed by double pressing. The dry mass remaining after this procedure is subjected to additional heat and heat treatment - toasting. Such a product can be sold to livestock enterprises either in powder form or in granules.
Product value
The diet of farm animals should include feed containing a large amount of protein. Otherwise, pigs, cows, etc. will not gain weight well and begin to hurt. As a result, the farm will suffer significant losses. One type of protein feed is rapeseed meal.
The value of such granules lies primarily in the fact that they contain proteins characterized by a very high biological activity. In this regard, rapeseed meal exceeds both the most popular among livestock breeders at the moment, sunflower, and pea or bean. In terms of energy value, this type of feed is close to soybean meal.
The proteins contained in this product are very well balanced in amino acid composition. Their lysine level is less than that of soy. But at the same time, rapeseed proteins contain almost twice as much methionine and other sulfur-containing amino acids. That is why rape is so in demand in animal husbandry. Other types of protein feed used in breeding pigs, cows, etc., for methionine, unfortunately, are poor.
Depending on the type of rape, the meal made from it can have 36-39% protein. At the same time, the protein that is part of this product is absorbed by animals by 70-80%.
What else is part of
Some disadvantage of this type of feed is that it contains quite a lot of fiber - up to 16%. The more it is in toasted rapeseed meal, the worse the protein that is part of it is absorbed by the animal organism. Also, due to fiber, the availability of copper and manganese to this animal feed is reduced. Therefore, it is believed that the best meal for pigs, cows, etc. is suitable meal obtained in the preparation of oil from rapeseed with a yellow shell. Such a fiber product contains the least.
In addition to copper and manganese, the composition of this product includes animals useful for the body:
- iron;
- calcium;
- phosphorus;
- selenium.
It is believed that all of these substances from rapeseed meal by the body of pigs and cows are absorbed better than from soy. At the same time, this type of feed, unfortunately, does not contain too many vitamins.
Interesting fact
Despite its high feed value, rapeseed meal began to be used relatively recently in animal husbandry. The fact is that until the 70s of the last century this product was considered very harmful, including for pigs and cows due to the high content of erucic acid. This substance is really able to have a negative effect on the heart muscle. However, in the 70s of the last century, breeders introduced new bezerukovy varieties of rapeseed.
For example, very often agricultural enterprises nowadays grow a special variety of this plant - canola. This culture contains a minimum amount of not only erucic acid, but also chlorophyll, and also differs in the absence of a pronounced taste (in ordinary rape it is not too pleasant - mustard).
For which animals can be used
This type of feed is especially widely used in dairy farming. Also rapeseed meal is used for breeding:
- pigs;
- geese, ducks, chickens, turkeys;
- rabbits.
In poultry, unlike livestock, such meal is not used very widely. For example, they give it most often to broiler chickens. The use of rapeseed meal for feeding layers is considered by many farmers as unacceptable. And even broilers are usually given no more than 5% of all the products they receive. The fact is that rape, among other things, includes synapine, which can give the eggs and poultry a “fishy” flavor. Ducks, geese, turkeys and rabbits can receive such meal in large enough quantities.
How is used
In its pure form, this type of feed is usually not given to farm animals. Most often, rapeseed meal is part of various feeds. Widely enough, this additive is mainly used by large and medium-sized agricultural enterprises. In private farms, meal of this variety has not yet found particularly widespread use. However, some owners of farmsteads still feed such a product to their animals. In this case, cows, pigs, etc. also usually receive it with mixed feed.
Nutrient mixtures, including rapeseed, also belong to the group of universal feeds in animal husbandry. Usually they contain all the components necessary for the normal development of animals. However, in addition to them, on farms pigs and cows are usually given juicy and roughage. That is, they introduce into the diet of animals, for example, silage, root crops, and for cattle without fail, of course, hay or grass.
Rapeseed meal producers in Russia
They put this product on the market, although it is not as popular as, for example, the same sunflower meal, today many companies. You can buy it for the manufacture of animal feed in any region of Russia. For example, manufacturers such as:
- LLC Zernokorm (Voronezh).
- LLC "Lada" (Novosibirsk).
- LLC Himgarant (Izhevsk).
- Mamruko LLC (Krasnodar).
- LLC Agrocapital (Kazan).
- Sibmax LLC (Omsk).
- LLC TD Complex-Agrotrade (Moscow).
- LLC InvestSnabKomplekt (Moscow).
One ton of rapeseed meal in the domestic market costs about 18-20 thousand rubles.
This product is produced in our country, of course, in compliance with certain standards in terms of protein and other substances. Regulates the production at rapeseed meal enterprises of GOST 30257-95. According to this document, the food sold by companies of this variety should have, for example, a color from light brown to dark brown with a greenish tint. Nitrate in meal should contain no more than 450 ppm (mg / kg), and moisture and volatile substances - a maximum of 8-12%. Pest infestation of this product is not allowed.
Features of production in Russia
The key regions for rape growing in our country are:
- Kaliningrad, Tula, Ryazan, Kemerovo and Lipetsk regions.
- Stavropol and Altai Territory.
- Republic of Tatarstan.
Until 2013, the gross revenues in Russia of this culture steadily increased. If in 2001 domestic agricultural enterprises collected about 113.2 thousand tons of rapeseed per year, then in 2013 this figure amounted to 1393.3 thousand tons. However, after 2013, the gross harvest of this crop began to decline. This was due to a fall in the price of rapeseed oil in the world market.
In any case, in recent years, the volume of rapeseed meal and cake production in our country has grown by almost 4.5 times. Today this product is sold in huge quantities not only in the domestic market. Russia exports a lot of such meal to other countries of the world. The main buyers of this product from the Russian Federation are Finland, Denmark and Sweden.