Comparison of Performance of Layers Fed Soybean, Glandless or Glanded Cottonseed Meals

HEYWANG (1947) reported that glanded cottonseed meals and soybean meal were of about equal value as sources of protein in diets for layers, with egg production, feed consumption, maintenance of body weight, and mortality as criteria. In a later study (Heywang et al., 1949) it was found that glanded cottonseed meal made by either the hydraulic or the solvent process, could be included at the 10% level in diets for breeders with no adverse effect on the hatchability of their eggs if the meal contained 0.12% or less free gossypol. In both reports data are given on the undesirable effect of these cottonseed meals on the color of yolks and whites in stored eggs. The results of experiments by a number of investigators show that: (1) gossypol, which is in the pigment glands of cottonseed, causes dark discolorations in egg yolks, (2) cyclopropenoid fatty acids, which are in cottonseed lipids,…