Due to its high content of protein, it is interesting to consider the use of rapeseed cake for animal feeding. The incorporation of cake meal in animal fodder is studied in many works, which support the fact that cake meal is suitable as animal fodder complement.

The introduction of rapeseed cake as part of the fodder has been largely studied. A lot of studies have been carried out and the results show that the introduction of rapeseed cake in little proportions in the fodder (until 10-15%) entails no significant changes in parameters such as nitrogen, lipid and mineral metabolism and also for the health status of the animals (Gopfert et al., 2006). Even in cow milk, no significant differences were found in fat, protein, casein, solids and non-solids fat content in the milk from cows fed with 15% of rape cake in fodder (Simek et al., 2000). Other studies of rapeseed used in different forms (Brzoska, 2008; Kracht et al., 2004) and (Rinne et al., 1999) show no negative effects on animal neither to their meat nor the milk obtained.

Rapeseed is nowadays used as a component in the fodder of many animals. The limit proportion is not determined by law in Spain, but some recommendations have been given by the Spanish Animal Nutritional Foundation (FEDNA, 2003) for the different species and ages. In Table 4 the mean chemical composition of rapeseed meal is shown (Moss & Givens, 1994).

The most representative groups of farm animals in the studied area are cattle, pigs and poultry (IDESCAT, 2008). Using the total number of animals and the characteristic intake of each species, the potential fodder demand is calculated. In Table 5 the values of fodder consumption in the Anoia region are shown for these representative groups. The proportion of cake meal in fodder was calculated using FEDNA (2003) recommendations. The cake meal yield (1500 kgcake/ha) is calculated based on the yield of rapeseed in the regions -2300 kg/ha as detailed in section 2- and the amount of oil extracted through pressing -35% from rapeseed w/w as seen in section 3-.

The fodder demand in the considered region could absorb completely the amount of rapeseed cake meal produced if a tenth of the arable land (about 3000 ha) was dedicated to rapeseed production. As seen in Table 5, the amount of land requirement for rapeseed cultivation to cover the maximal cake meal consumption of the studied area is about 5500 ha.