Effects of using regionally (EU) grown, protein-rich ingredients in diets on the growth performance of fast and slow growing broilers

Summary

This report describes the results of an experiment in which the effects of partial and complete replacement of soybean meal with more regionally (EU) grown protein-rich ingredients on the performance results of fast and slow-growing broilers were studied. Partial replacement of soybean meal with peas, field beans, sunflower seed meal or rapeseed meal is possible without compromising performance results. However, complete replacement of soybean meal with more regionally grown ingredients gave reduced performance results. Fast and slow-growing broilers do not respond similar to diets with more regionally grown proteinrich ingredients. In fast-growing broilers, partial replacement of soybean meal with rapeseed meal led to a deterioration in performance results, while in slow-growing broilers an improvement was observed. This study also showed that it is possible to reduce the carbon footprint of diets using more regionally grown protein-rich ingredients, but including or excluding the footprint related to Land Use Change (LUC) from soybean production influences the outcome.