Soybean Meal Palatability for Young Pigs

Spanish researchers reported at the Animal Science meeting this summer on a study where young pigs were offered the choice of two diets consisting of a reference diet or partial (10%) or complete (20%) substitution of the soybean meal by the test protein ingredient. Feed intake was measured over two four-day periods and the preference for each protein source relative to the reference diet was calculated. Results indicated that the pigs preferred the lupine, soybean meal and extruded soybean protein sources, whereas, sunflower and rapeseed meal based diets were less preferred compared to the reference diet. This experiment demonstrated that differences in feed ingredient palatability can be experimentally shown and soybean meal is very palatable to the young pig compared to other oilseed meals.

Sola, D., E. Roura and D. Torrallardona. 2005. Changes in dietary preferences in piglets due to different protein sources. J. Animal Sci. 83 (Suppl. 1): p70 (abstract M244).