The Effect of Steam Pelleting Feed Ingredients on Chick Performance: Effect on Phosphorus Availability, Metabolizable Energy Value and Carcass Composition

THE performance of growing chicks on a diet containing no added inorganic phosphate (42% corn and 40% soybean meal) was markedly increased when the diet was steam pelleted. The ash content of the bones of chicks receiving the diet in the mash form was low but when the ration had been steam pelleted the ash content of the bones was normal (Cisneros, 1966). It would appear that in a corn, soybean meal diet the availability of the organic phosphorus to the young chick is increased by steam pelleting. Summers et al. (1967) found that this was also true for rations containing wheat bran. In the present study the effect of steam pelleting the ingredients of a corn soybean meal diet, separately and in combination, on the response of growing chicks to supplemental inorganic phosphorus, was investigated. An experiment designed to show the effects of exploiting increased nutrient availability as a . . .