2023
Formulating broiler diets with productive energy (Ark NE) increases the value and percentage of energy from soybean meal
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Contributor/Checkoff:
United Soybean Board
Category:
Feed
Keywords:
Amino acidsAnimal nutritionBroiler chickensEnergyMacronutritional bundleSoy meal
Parent Project:
This is the first year of this project.
Lead Principal Investigator:
Craig Coon, University of Arkansas
Co-Principal Investigators:
Project Code:
23-107-D-F-1-H
Contributing Organization (Checkoff):
United Soybean Board
$199,927
Institution Funded:
University of Arkansas
$199,927
Brief Project Summary:
The Metabolizable Energy (ME) system does not give credit to protein and amino acid calories (Lopez and Leeson, 2008; Suesuttajit et al., 2022). The diet ME and its derivate, the classic net energy (NE), show no relevant relationship with performance, breast yield, and market value of broilers (Suesuttajit, 2022). The Arkansas Net Energy (Ark NE) is a Productive Energy that takes into account the energy retained in the body and the heat production. It predicts feed conversion ratio, feeding cost of gain, breast meat yield, and market value of broilers (Suesuttajit, 2022). Soybean meal (SBM) is recognized for its high amino acid content. However, it also has higher energy value than corn when expressed as Productive Energy (Ark NE) (Suesuttajit et al., 2022). A current USB granted project (2240-352-0514-N) has shown that the Ark NE of SBM can be predicted with high precision (R2 = 0.84) and low error (< 5%) from its digestible nutrient content. This study aims to (1) validate the higher Ark NE value of SBM compared to corn, (2) develop models to predict the Ark NE value of corn and oil (needed to formulate diets), and (3) compare the performance, breast meat yield, and economics of
Information And Results
Project Summary

Project Objectives

Project Deliverables

Progress Of Work

Final Project Results

This project reports productive energy values for total digestible amino acids, corn, and corn oil for broilers up to 56 days of age, as well as a validated equation to predict the productive energy of corn based on its content of digestible nutrients. Productive energy recommended values are provided for broilers from 1 to 56 days of age. Project outcomes indicate that formulating diets with productive energy improved performance, processing yield, and economics. Formulating diets with productive energy increased the body weight of broilers at 56 days of age, reduced their feed conversion ratio, improved the carcass yield and the market value of the carcass, reduced the feeding cost per kg of carcass, and increased the gross profit and the feed ROI. Increasing the productive energy density improved most of these variables. Soybean meal reported higher productive energy concentration than corn. Research is needed to determine the optimum productive energy for broilers, to maximize performance, minimize feeding cost, maximize the market value of the bird, and optimize the ROI.

Benefit To Soybean Farmers

Due to its high concentration of high-quality amino acids, soybean meal is a crucial feed ingredient to support performance, processing yield, and economics of broiler production. Productive energy is a sensitive energy system that is valuable for showcasing the value of soybean meal and crediting its high nutritional value. This project advanced the development of productive energy for poultry feed formulation as a better alternative to metabolizable energy to better credit the soybean meal nutritional value for poultry and to allow poultry nutritionists to optimize feed formulation with the use of soybean meal.

The United Soybean Research Retention policy will display final reports with the project once completed but working files will be purged after three years. And financial information after seven years. All pertinent information is in the final report or if you want more information, please contact the project lead at your state soybean organization or principal investigator listed on the project.