THE VALUE OF RAPESEED MEAL FOR GROWING PULLETS AND LAYING HENS

Abstract
Two experiments were carried out to investigate the value of rapeseed meal in poultry diets. In the first experiment when rapeseed meal replaced all of the supplemental soybean protein in a corn, soya-type pullet growing diet, weight gain was significantly reduced as compared with the corn, soya control diet. The difference, however, was small and may well have been due to amino acid imbalance. In the second experiment rapeseed meal effectively replaced soybean meal in a laying hen diet when fed in a phase-feeding program. For the overall test, the only difference in the phase-fed groups compared with birds fed the higher protein soybean meal control diet was a significantly lower weight gain from the diet where rapeseed meal replaced all of the soybean meal protein, and a decrease in average egg weight from the diet where rapeseed meal replaced half of the soybean meal protein.