The effect of particle size of commercial soybean meal on performance and nutrient utilization of broiler chicks

Department of Poultry Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2772, USA.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of soybean meal (SBM) particle size on broiler performance, particularly P utilization. This experiment utilized a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design with the following variables: SBM particle size, P level, and diet type, either corn-SBM or semipurified. SBM was obtained from a processing plant before (geometric mean diameter 1,239 microm) and after (891 microm) hammer milling. The P levels were 0.5% total P for deficient diets and 0.7% total P for adequate P diets. The coarse SBM improved bone ash (P < 0.05), gain:feed ratios (P < 0.1), and plasma P levels (P < 0.1). The diets with 0.5% P resulted in overall poorer performance as 16-d BW was reduced, gain:feed ratio decreased, bone ash decreased, and rickets incidence increased. Chicks fed the semipurified diets also had lower 16-d BW, lower gain-to-feed ratio, and lower bone ash. There was a significant interaction between the diet type and the soy particle size when the corn-SBM meal diets were fed because the coarse SBM increased plasma P levels, whereas there was little effect when the semipurified diets were fed. There were also significant interactions observed between these variables on growth and gain:feed ratio in that the coarse SBM elicited a much more dramatic response when incorporated into the semipurified diets as opposed to the corn-SBM diets. The results suggest that large particle size soybean meal may be more efficiently utilized than fine particle size soybean meal.

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