Recipient Organization
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
PO BOX 2275A
BROOKINGS,SD 57007
Performing Department
Animal Science
Non Technical Summary
Brassica carinata (carinata) is a mustard plant that has agronomic traits favorable for production in semi-arid regions as a rotational crop with wheat. Carinata seed has a lipid profile that is high in erucic acid, which can be efficiently converted into renewable jet fuel using existing post-harvest biofuels processing techniques. Following lipid extraction from the seed, the resulting meal contains relatively low amounts of erucic acid and large amounts of glucosinolates, which are a class of compounds produced by the plant to reduce animal browsing. Glucosinolates preclude the use of carinata meal for human food, and also restrict the inclusion rate of carinata meal in animal diets. However, because carinata meal represents nearly two-thirds of the overall seed yield it is important to understand and increase the use of carinata meal in livestock diets.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
25%
Applied
50%
Developmental
25%
Goals / Objectives
Evaluate carinata meal in livestock and aquaculture diets to determine optimal feed inclusion rates and animal/fish performance
Project Methods
Brassica carinata (carinata) is a mustard plant that is being developed for production of biofuels for use in aviation. Following seed harvest, carinata seeds are processed by either hexane extraction or cold pressing to separate the oil from the meal. Hexane extraction recovers a higher percentage of the oil, typically leaving only 1-2% in the meal, while cold pressing results in meal with 6-8% oil. Both hexane extracted and cold pressed carinata meal will be evaluated in this study, since they will contain different levels of erucic acid and glucosinolates.Erucic acid has been demonstrated to induce myocardial lipidosis in rats. Thus, the United States Food and Drug Administration regulates inclusion of feeds with erucic acid to livestock in an effort limit intake of erucic acid among humans from meat and milk products. Pre-gastric fermentation of feed in the ruminant digestive tract allow for modification of lipids prior to absorption and storage of lipid from the diet into meat and milk. Thus, current regulations allow diets for cattle fed for slaughter to contain more than 5-times the amount of carinata meal in comparison to swine, poultry and dairy cows. Therefore, the more than 35,000,000 cattle fed for meat production in the United States provide one of the greatest opportunities to use of carinata meal.Lipid extraction from carinata seed concentrates non-lipid components in carinata meal. Thus, glucosinolate concentration in carinata meal is often 2- to 3-times greater than carinata seed. Glucosinolates can have anti-microbial activity and reduce thyroid function in non-ruminants. There is limited information on effects of glucosinolate content of cattle diets on ruminal fermentation of feed and thyroid function. It is possible that ruminal fermentation may reduce impacts of glucosinolates; however, feed must be ingested by cattle prior to ruminal fermentation. Glucosinolates contribute to taste common to mustards. Currently, there is little data on effects of glucosinolates on feeding behavior in cattle. It is possible that inclusion of carinata meal in cattle diets may alter feeding behavior. If carinata meal could reduce meal size without reducing total daily feed intake, then carinata meal may be useful to cattle fed high grain diets by helping to reduce incidences and severity of metabolic disorders associated with rapid ruminal fermentation of high corn diet (i.e., ruminal acidosis). Additionally, if carinata meal can reduce overall feed intake then carinata meal could be useful in modulating feeding behavior to limit intake of supplements and reduce labor requirements of producers.We plan to investigate impacts of carinata meal inclusion in cattle diet on feeding behavior. Feeding behavior in cattle, like most other animals, is often regulated by humoral and neural (chemostatic) signals when caloric density of feed is large. However, when cattle are fed forage-based diets with less caloric density, then feed intake is often limited by physical fill of the rumen. Thus, we plan to investigate feed intake when feeding behavior is regulated by chemostatic mechanism or physical fill. We plan to use individual feed monitoring systems located at the South Dakota State University Cow-Calf Education and Research Facility to study effects of carinata meal inclusion on feeding behavior in cattle housed in a common pen. Feeding behavior will be monitored for at least 60 days to achieve accuracy of means and optimal estimates of variances in feeding behavior. A greater understanding of the impacts of carinata meal on feeding behavior could allow for development of management strategies that improve performance and reduce labor inputs by cattle producers. Thus, a greater understanding of effects of carinata meal on cattle feeding behavior could allow for more rapid adoption of carinata meal as a feed resource to cattle. Greater inclusion of carinata meal in cattle could then support incentives for production of carinata by allowing for development of markets that optimize returns for biofuel production and end users