Advantages of Extruding Full-Fat Soy for Broilers
The poultry industry has seen significant advancements in the 21st century, with a growing focus on optimizing broiler nutrition to enhance growth, health, and overall performance.
One of the key innovations in broiler nutrition is the use of extruded full-fat soybeans. These soybeans are subjected to high temperature and pressure via the ExPress® process, resulting in a product that is easy to digest, safe to feed, and nutritionally valuable for broilers.
Unlike conventional soybean meal, which is typically defatted, full-fat extruded soybeans offer the complete lipid profile of soy oil that is more difficult to oxidize compared with free soy oil. This also provides logistics benefits for mills that cannot handle liquids.
Benefits of using full-fat extruded soybeans in broiler feeds
Improved digestibility
The extrusion process neutralizes many of the antinutritional factors found in raw soybeans, such as trypsin inhibitors and lectins, making the protein more available to broilers. This improved digestibility leads to better feed conversion rates and faster growth, ultimately reducing the time and resources required to raise broilers to market weight.
Enhanced energy density
The natural oil content in full-fat extruded soybeans provides an additional source of energy in broiler diets. This extra energy helps broilers maintain body temperature and support their high metabolic rate during growth. As a result, broilers have more energy to allocate to growth, which translates to improved body weight gain and overall performance.
Amino acid balance
Full-fat extruded soybeans are an excellent source of essential amino acids, particularly lysine. The amino acid profile of soybeans complements the amino acids found in grains, creating a more balanced diet for broilers.
Reduced need for fat and oil additions
Incorporating full-fat extruded soybeans in broiler feeds can reduce the reliance on added fats and oils, which are often used to increase energy levels in conventional diets. This lowers feed formulation costs due to the high prices of added fats and oils, as well as simplifies the formulation process by eliminating the need for added fats.
As the poultry industry continues to evolve, the utilization of extruded full-fat soybeans can become part of the answer to a better animal industry.
