Global oilseed production has been increasing due to the increased demand for oil as well as the increased demand for amino acids for livestock feeding. In addition to providing amino acids, sunflower meal (SFM) and sunflower expellers (SFE) also provide energy and other nutrients to the diets. Because the concentration of residual oil is less in SFM than in SFE, it is expected that SFE provides more energy to diets than SFM. However, data for the digestibility of nutrients and gross energy and concentrations of digestible energy and metabolizable energy in different samples of SFM or SFE are limited. Therefore, the objective of this research was to test the null hypothesis that there are no differences in the apparent total tract digestibility of nutrients and gross energy and concentration of digestible energy and metabolizable energy among SFM and SFE when fed to growing pigs. Results demonstrated that values for apparent total tract digestibility of nutrients and gross energy differed among samples of SFM produced in different countries. However, concentrations of digestible energy and metabolizable energy were not different in SFE compared with SFM despite a greater concentration of fat in SFE.

Read the full article in the Journal of Animal Science.