Sunflower Meal

Hull is high in fibre and carries little protein, so leaving it in dilutes the meal and raising the removal rate concentrates it. Because hull removal is a dial rather than a switch, sunflower meal is marketed at several protein specifications from one raw material — and two lots both labelled sunflower meal can be quite different feeds.

Undecorticated meal

Made with the hull left in: higher fibre, lower protein, and the least concentrated grade.

Decorticated meal

Made after substantial hull removal: lower fibre and a higher protein concentration.

Expeller meal

Meal from pressing without a subsequent solvent stage, which leaves more residual oil than a fully extracted meal.

Sunflower meal is used across livestock feeding but sits most comfortably in ruminant rations, where its fibre is less of a constraint than it is for poultry and pigs. Formulators treat it as a protein source that trades at a discount to soybean meal, and the discount reflects both its fibre load and its amino acid profile, which differs from soybean meal in ways that matter to monogastric diets.

Its inclusion is therefore a formulation decision made grade by grade, and a change in the meal’s decortication level changes the ration, not merely the price line.

Meal is shipped in bulk and in bags and is commonly pelleted to improve density and flow. Fibrous, hull-bearing meals are dusty and bulky, which raises handling and freight cost per unit of protein delivered. Like other meals it is hygroscopic: held moist it heats, cakes, and moulds, and expeller grades with more residual oil have a shorter keeping quality than fully extracted ones.