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Soybean Meal Digestibility-Swine A study was conducted using the ileal digestibility technique
to evaluate the effect of particle size reduction of soybean meal on
amino acid and energy digestibility. Soybean meal was processed through
a hammer mill to average particle sizes of 949, 600, 389 and 185 um.
A soybean meal and a soy protein concentrate with particle sizes of
800 and 385 um, respectively, were also tested. The digestion study
was a 7x7 Latin square design with two replicates and using 14 crossbred
barrows weighing an average of 28 kg. The test diets were fed in meal
form for a five-day adjustment period followed by a two-day collection
of ileal digesta. The results indicated that reducing meal particle
size increased linearly (P<0.05) the digestibility of some of the
essential amino acids (isoleucine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine
and valine). The true digestibility of the essential amino acids increased
from 91.0 to 92.4 percent as the particle size was reduced. Smaller
increased digestibility values were observed for the nonessential amino
acids. Energy digestibility of the diets was not affected by particle
size reductions. These results suggest that a reduction in particle
size of soybean meal result in a small, but significant, increase in
the digestibility of its amino acids with the essential amino acids
being affected more than the nonessential amino acids. The largest improvement
in amino acid digestibility was obtained when the meal’s particle
size was reduced to 600 um.
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