Eating More Chicken Benefits Soybean Growers

Researchers at the University of Arkansas evaluated possible interactions of lysine and methionine in the performance of broiler chicks. The basal diets were formulated to contain the NRC (1994) recommendation for lysine and methionine and 110 percent of the other required amino acids. Graded levels of lysine and methionine were added to the basal diets to determine any interaction between lysine and methionine when minimum levels of either amino acid were exceeded. The results of three studies indicated there was no significant interaction between lysine and methionine for any parameter measured when birds were fed diets containing these amino acids equal to or in excess of the NRC requirement. The authors discuss the significance of amino acid supplementation to broiler performance criteria and breast meat yield.

This study also provided the opportunity to estimate the number amount of dehulled soybean meal needed to produce a commercial broiler that will find widespread acceptance on barbeque grills. In the following table one can see dehulled meal provides a large percent of the broiler diet; on the average, it takes about 7.1 kg (15.7 lbs) of feed or 1.85 kg (4.1 lbs) of dehulled soybean meal to produce a broiler. One could easily expand these calculations to estimate the number of broilers that could be produced per bushel of soybeans, broilers that could be produced per acre of soybean, etc. The bottom line is that it is a “win-win” situation for both the soybean grower and broiler producer to enjoy barbequed chicken. Broilers are some of the best consumers of soybean meal.

			STARTER	GROWER	FINISHER
Diet Composition		Units
	Yellow Corn	%	49.71	58.72	67.22
	Dehulled Soybean Meal	%	30.50	28.03	23.24
	Corn Gluten Meal	%	9.03	3.22	0.24
	Poultry Oil	%	5.91	5.36	4.73
	Other Ingredients	%	4.85	4.67	4.57
Broiler Performance At			21 DAYS	42 DAYS	63 DAYS
	Bodyweight	g	615	2060	3344
	Feed Conversion	g/g	1.414	1.759	2.137
Soybean Meal Use
	Total Feed Per Period	g/bird	870	2754	3520
	Soybean Meal Consumed	g/bird	265	770	820
	Total SBM Consumed	g/bird			1850
		lbs/bird			4.1

Si, Jianlin, and co-workers. 2004. An evaluation of the interaction of lysine and methionine in diets of growing broilers. International J. Poultry Sci. 3(1):51-60.