THE INFLUENCE OF PROCESSING OF LUPINS AND CANOLA ON APPARENT METABOLIZABLE ENERGY AND BROILER PERFORMANCE.

1. The influence of processing of Lupinus angustifolius and full-fat Canola seed on Apparent Metabolizable Energy and broiler performance. The extrusion and dehulling of sweet blue lupins (Lupinus angustifolius, cultivar Wonga) and the expansion of full-fat canola seed were evaluated in terms of their effect on the nitrogen corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn) value and broiler performance. Two separate trials were conducted for the lupin and canola test materials respectively. Four lupin products were tested and consisted of: lupin meal (LM), dehulled lupin meal (DLM), extruded lupin meal (ELM) and extruded dehulled lupin meal (EDLM). The two canola products were: canola full-fat (CFF) and expanded canola full-fat (ECFF). In each trial two summit diets were formulated with similar energy and crude protein values. The one did not contain any test material (control) and the other contained either lupin meal (170 g/kg for the starter test diet and 174 g/kg for the finisher test diet) or full-fat canola seed (169 g/kg for both the starter and finisher tetst diets). The other test diets were then prepared by replacing the LM with equal quantities of DLM, ELM and EDLM respectively and the CFF were replaced by ECFF. Each of these test diets were then blended with the control diet at six inclusion levels (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%) to produce experimental diets with increasing levels of the test material. These diets were fed to three groups of 80 as hatched Ross 308 broilers in the lupin trial and 40 in the case of the canola trial. Each trial lasted 42 days. Firstly, the influence of processing was measured in terms of its effect on the AME value of the test material and secondly on broiler performance. Body weight, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (g feed / g weight) were the parameters measured. The extrusion of lupin meal decreased AMEn from 8.61 MJ/kg to 7.52 MJ/kg. The ELM also resulted in inferior broiler performance in comparison with LM and DLM for all parameters measured. The combination of dehulling and extrusion (EDLM) did not result in significant improvements above that observed for ELM. The dehulling of lupin meal (DLM), however, increased the absolute value of lupin AMEn from 8.61 MJ/kg to 8.81 MJ/kg and this effect was also seen when ELM was compared to EDLM (7.52 MJ/kg to 8.04 MJ/kg). The expansion of full-fat canola (ECFF) increased the AMEn from 15.51 MJ/kg to 19.20 MJ/kg, but it did not significantly improve the body weight, feed intake or feed conversion ratio of broilers. Dietary levels above 10% CFF resulted in lower body weights and feed intakes were reduced in comparison to birds on the control diet from 6.8% CFF. The utilization of canola diets (FCR) were superior to those of the control from the 6.8% inclusion level of CFF. Thus, the dehulling of lupins rendered a more nutrient dense product and this was reflected in the superior broiler performances observed with DLM in comparison with the other lupin products. If body weight is the main criteria, ground, raw canola seeds can be included in broiler diets up to 10%, but dietary levels of up to 16.9% will perform well in terms of feed conversion ratios.