ISSUE FOCUS 38 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE April 2025 “The use of feed-grade amino acids (FGAA) is an important tool to lower feed cost while lowering nitrogen emission for swine and poultry producers. When FGAA’s are used within the known limits, they can improve animal performance and enhance carcass value. However, when lowering dietary crude protein via soybean meal (SBM) or other protein sources, care must be taken as all the EAA ratios to SID Lys are not well established especially for 7th, 8th limiting amino acids and minimum nitrogen requirements for non-essential amino acid de novo synthesis.” The net energy (NE) of soybean meal (SBM) has been an intense topic of debate in the US swine nutrition community. Recent published works (Cemin, et al., 2020, Holden, et al., 2022) suggested the net energy of SBM is much higher than NRC (2012) estimates. In fact, Cemin et al., (2020) has suggested it is higher than corn. A total of 2,153 finishing pigs (PIC 337 × 1050; initially 28.8 ± .47 kg) were used in a 112-d growth study to determine the NE of SBM relative to corn and feed-grade amino acids (FGAA). The four treatments consisted of a diet containing a low level of SBM and added FGAA (Low SBM) and three diets with a 3.37 (Med-Low SBM), 6.69 (Med-High SBM), and 10% (High SBM) increase in SBM compared to the Low SBM diet with FGAA. The High SBM diet did not contain any feedgrade L-lysine-HCl. Treatment diets were fed in four dietary phases. Increasing dietary levels of FGAA with corresponding decreasing levels of dietary SBM resulted in linear (P<.01) increase in ADG resulting linear (P<.01) heavier body weight (BW) at day 56 and 112. ADFI was linearly increased (P<0.001) from day 0 to 56 and over the trial period (P<.004) with increasing levels of FGAA. FCR was unaffected (P>.10) from day 0 to 56, but linearly (P<.03) improved with increasing levels of FGAA from day 56 to 112 but was unaffected (P>.10) over the entire 112-day trial. Increasing dietary level of SBM resulted in a linear (P<.03) increase in mortality percentage and total mortalities plus removal percentage. Carcass weight, yield percentage and carcass ADG linearly (P<.001) increased with increasing FGAA and decreasing dietary SBM levels. Increasing dietary FGAA increased back fat (BF) (P<.05) and carcass lean percentage in a quadratic manner. SBM NE value relative to corn was estimated using adjusted dietary caloric efficiency at 93.5% on a liveweight basis or 83.9% on a carcass weight basis relative to corn. In this study, the NE of SBM was higher than the NRC 2012 values but was not equal to or higher than that of corn. BACKGROUND The NRC (2012) added NE estimates in addition to traditional digestible energy (DE) and metabolizRECENT FINDINGS ON THE NET ENERGY OF SOYBEAN MEAL Dr. Keith D. Haydon Director of Technical Services and Marketing CJ Bio North America
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