Effect of cooking soybean on DM digestibility and energy in pigs

Crossbred (Large White x Hampshire) barrows (24) were used in 2 metabolism trials to asses the effect of duration of coocking soybean on dry matter digestibility and energy metabolism by young pigs. In the first experiment, 10 individually fed pigs with an average initial weight of 9.28 kg were fed diets in which full-fat soybean was cooked at 100 C for 15, 20, 25 and 30 min. Diet 1 with soybean-meal served as the control. There were no significant differences in apparent digestibility of DM, EE and NFE between dietary treatments (P0.05). In the second experiment, 14 barrows with and average initial live weight of 14.43kg were used to evaluate the effect of duration of cooking soybean at 100C for 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 or 40 min on energy metabolism by young pigs. The DM, ME and their efficiency of utilization increased significantly (P0.05) with increase in duration of cooking. It was concluded that 30 min of cooking soybean at 100C was required for maximum nutrient digestibilities and energy utilization by young pigs.