Using ExPress® Soy Oil as Main Energy Source in Broiler Diets
With an average 4.7% inflation increase, protein prices across the board remain high. Just like consumers, feed manufacturers are also trying to counter the effects of inflation, causing a comprehensive increase in the cost of producing animal feed, according to the American Feed Industry Association. Furthermore, high-priced vegetable oils and fats are pressuring nutritionists to reevaluate traditional feeding programs in efforts to help reduce overall costs.
While cost is the primary consideration when formulating animal diets, ingredient quality is also a critical factor in the animal’s performance. Typically, lower-cost ingredients will also mean lower-quality nutrition from those ingredients. However, there are tradeoffs when using lower-quality ingredients in an animal diet. For example, replacing high-quality vegetable oil with a lower-quality AV blend can cause animal growth and performance to drop.
In a recent study conducted at Iowa State University, broilers fed a diet containing an AV blend – a cheaper and lower quality fat source – resulted in a 10% decrease in feed efficiency. When the fat source was replaced with ExPress® soy oil, a unique and high-quality vegetable oil, broilers consumed 5% less feed overall, resulting in a 6% increase in average daily gain. Not only did the birds grow more efficiently, but because they ate less, the diet cost per bird was decreased compared with the AV blend.
Using ExPress® soy oil as a high-quality energy source promotes a broiler producer’s profitability. Energy digestibility of ExPress® soy oil improved by 9% compared with an industry standard AV blend. This led to more feed efficiency to the birds fed a higher quality oil. Combined with lowered feed intake and better bird weight gain with ExPress® soy oil translates to savings on overall diet costs. The chart illustrates the total feed cost per bird based on an equal oil price. The largest feed cost savings were shown when ExPress® soy oil was fed in the diet. Despite being a cheaper oil, a standard AV Blend oil will end up costing significantly more due to the previously mentioned decreased efficiency. Overall, using ExPress® soy oil – a predictable, high-quality oil – will help producers become more profitable and deliver predictable animal performance.
In addition to improved animal performance and reduced diet costs when feeding ExPress® soy oil, the shelf life of the soy oil, of up to 12 months, supports better profitability of the feed mill due to less waste of rancid oil, better batch-to-batch consistency for diet mixing, and nutritionally predictable quality of oil.
In conclusion, ExPress® soy oil is a financially feasible energy source in broiler diets. Furthermore, the nutritional advantages found when feeding the oil alone correlates with findings from the previous 50 years of animal feeding data with extruded ingredients, namely extruded full-fat soy and ExPress® soymeal.
