Effect of overcooked soybean meal on turkey performance

Three turkey growth experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect of overcooked soybean meal (SBM) on BW gain and gain:feed ratio (FE). On two occasions soybean meals were custom prepared by changing the temperature and the retention time (RT) of the desolventizer-toaster unit at a commercial soybean processing plant. Three different meals were produced for each occasion mainly by altering RT from normal to approximately 1.35 and 2.43 times normal operating conditions (designated SBM1 to 3 on the first occasion and SBM4 to 6 on the second occasion). For SBM1 to 6, urease activities were .06, .00, .20, .01 and .00 delta pH, protein solubilities in .1 M borate at 40 C were 44, 45, 16, 44, 32, and 24%, and protein solubilities in .2% KOH were 86, 84, 76, 90, 85, and 85%, respectively. In two sequential long-term experiments, SBM1 to 3 were fed to turkeys from 0 to 8 wk, then a control (normal processing conditions, SBMF), was fed to the all treatment groups from 8 to 12 wk of age. The SBM4 to 6 were fed from 12 to 18 wk of age after rerandomizing treatment allocation of replicate pens. In the first trial, poults fed SBM3 showed significantly reduced BW gain from 3 wk on and a lower FE shown at 9 wk. No difference in BW gain and FE was observed in the trial from 12 to 18 wk. In a 15-day, short-term experiment starting with 3-day-old poults and feeding diets containing SBM2 to 6, BW gain and FE did not differ among treatment groups. It is concluded that SBM did not show a detrimental effect on turkey growth until it was overcooked by 2.4 times the normal conditions. The usual operating conditions in a commercial processing plant are well within the range for producing adequate SBM for poultry feed.