Effect Of Replacing Soybean Meal With Cooked Whole Soybean On Broiler Performance In The Humid Tropics

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of replacing soybean meal with cooked whole soybeans on the performance of starter and finisher broiler chicks in a humid tropical environment. At starter phase, three isonitrogenous (24% crude protein, CP) and isocaloric (2.9 meal ME/KG) broiler starter diets containing either raw (R) or cooked full-fat soyabeans (C), or defatted soyabean meal (M) were each fed to 60 Anak broiler chicks from 10 to 45 days of age. At finisher phase, 108 45-day old birds from starter phase were fed three isonitrogenous (22% CP) and isocaloric (3.0 Meal Me/Kg) finisher diets. Data at the starter phase show that R significantly (P<0.01) depressed body weight (BWt.), daily weight gain (DGW), feed conversion ratio (FCR), and protein efficiency ratio (PER). Mortality of chicks was not significantly (P>0.05) affected by dietary treatments. At finisher phase, birds on raw whole soyabeans still had the poorest performance, while switching bird from M to C diet did not result in significant depression of any of the parameters considered. Thus in a humid tropical condition, cooked whole soybeans can be used to replace soybean meal in broiler diets at both starter and finisher phase without a depression on the bird performance.

Journal of Applied Chemistry and Agricultural Research Vol. 3 1996: pp. 21-24