The nutritive value of faba beans and low glucosinolate rapeseed meal for swine

Faba beans may be effectively used as a partial replacement for other protein supplements in swine diets. Breeding swine appear to be particularly sensitive to the level of faba beans in their diets. The lack of response to autoclaving faba beans suggests that the trypsin inhibitor level and condensed tannin content of faba beans do not significantly influence the performance of growing-finishing swine. Supplementation of diets containing faba beans with lysine and/or methionine has not improved pig performance. The scientific selection and commercial production of low glucosinolate varieties of rape constitutes a major advance for swine nutrition. All swine experiments that have compared low glucosinolate rapessed meal with regular rapeseed meal have demonstrated the superiority of the low glucosinolate material as a protein source. Substantially larger proportions of the low glucosinolate material may be fed to all classes of swine without any significant depression in performance.