Nutritive value of rapeseed meal from two Brassica campestris varieties for growing pigs

The digestibility and nutritive value of two rapeseed meals (Brassica campestris) , one prepared from the medium-glucosinolate varieties Span and Torch, and the other from a low-glucosinolate variety Candle, were determined for three pigs weighing about 45 kg. The pigs received 1600 g barley and 600 g rapeseed meal daily. The composition of the Candle meal was better than that of Span-Torch and its digestibility and nutritive value higher (P < 0.01). When the fat content of Candle meal was corrected to the 1.5 % level of Span-Torch meal, the ME values were 13.6 and 10.4 MJ/kg DM, the NE values 1.01 and 0.78 FU/kg DM (FU = 0.7 kg starch), and the DCP values 318 and 248 g DCP/kg DM for Candle and Span-Torch, respectively (P < 0.01). The difference in the nitrogen balance was also significant (P < 0.01). Thus the Candle meal has about 30 % higher nutritive value for pigs than the Span-Torch meal.