Triticale and Lupine Feeding Trials with Chickens

By Harry Nakaue and Fatholah Boldaji

Pacific Northwest poultry producers import significant amounts of corn and protein meal into the region each year to meet their feed needs. Triticale and lupine, two newer Oregon crops, are possible alternative feed sources for the poultry feed market. Over the past year, poultry researchers in the Department of Animal Science at Oregon State University have evaluated these crops for feeding potential. Results of our work are reported here.

Triticale

Recently the new winter triticale variety Celia was introduced to growers in the Pacific Northwest. Over the last year we conducted feeding trials for four 28-day periods to determine the effect of feeding Celia on the performance of laying chickens. Energy, protein and amino acid levels of Celia were determined in our laboratory. The lot of Celia we used in these studies had more crude protein (11.07 percent) than lots of Flora triticale (8.75 percent), an older variety, used in previous studies. However, lysine and methionine levels (both essential to layers) were lower in Celia (0.28 and 0.11 percent, respectively) than in Flora (0.32 and 1.79 percent).

Four diets were fed to 384 Single Comb White Leghorn laying chickens, 96 layers per diet. The dietary treatments were: corn-soybean (a control diet), barley-corn-soybean, triticale-barley-soybean, and triticale-barley-corn-soybean. Diet compositions are shown in Table 1. Poultry fat was added to the barley and triticale diets at a rate of 4 to 5 percent to equalize calorie count of the diets.

Table 1. Composition of four laying hen diets

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No differences in hen-day egg production, feed conversion, daily egg mass produced, interior egg quality, shell thickness or body weight gain were observed among the dietary treatments at the one-in-twenty (P > 5 percent) probability level. Layers fed the corn diet consumed more feed than layers fed barley-corn, triticale-barley, or the combination of grains (P > 5 percent). Egg yolk colors were lighter in layers fed diets containing triticale or barley than in corn diet fed layers (P > 5 percent).

This study indicates that Celia triticale can be fed to laying chickens as an alternative grain source, provided the metabolizable energy requirement in the feed is met. Pacific Northwest poultry producers will incorporate triticale in their poultry feeds if the per unit cost of triticale is comparable to corn and if there is an abundant supply of this grain.

Lupines

Pacific Northwest poultry producers typically pay more than $40 per ton to ship soybean meal from the Midwest for use in their feeds. Developing an alternative protein crop that can be grown in the Pacific Northwest will benefit local poultry producers. Recently, we investigated the effect of feeding white lupine (Lupinus albus variety Ultra) to broilers and laying chickens. The white lupine seed was provided by Dr. Dan Ball, Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center, Pendleton, Oregon. Dr. Ball and Brian Tuck, Sherman County Extension Agent, have been experimenting with lupine for more than 5 years in the Columbia Basin. The crop appears to have promise for this dryland region.

The nutrient composition of the white lupine is presented in Table 2. The raw white lupine contained approximately 30.17 percent crude protein, 8.28 percent fat, no detectable alkaloid, and a low level (0.15 percent) of methionine, an essential amino acid that is required by poultry.

Broiler chicks were fed from 8 to 28 days of age corn-soybean, corn-raw white lupine or corn-autoclaved (heat-treated at 235 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes) white lupine diets. The corn-soybean diet is a traditional or control diet. Raw or autoclaved white lupine replaced all of the soybean in the diets in which they were used. Poultry fat was added to the lupine diets to equalize calorie levels.

No differences in body weight gain, feed conversion or fecal moisture levels were observed among the dietary treatments ( P > 5 percent; table 3). Broilers fed the raw lupine diet gained more weight per gram of protein consumed (PER) than broilers fed the autoclaved lupine. However, raw lupine fed broilers had more feces adhering around the vent area and less nitrogen retention than the corn-soybean or corn-autoclaved lupine fed birds (Table 3).

Laying White Leghorn pullets were fed corn-soybean and corn-raw white lupine diets for two 28-day periods. No differences were observed among the treatments on hen-day egg production, feed conversion, daily feed consumed, egg mass, or interior egg quality (Table 4).

According to our experiments, raw white lupine can be fed to broilers and laying hens provided the required levels of essential amino acids and metabolized energy levels are met.

Harry Nakaue is a Professor of Poultry Science in the Dept. of Animal Science at Oregon State University.

Fatholah Boldaji is a Professor of Animal Science in Iran. He was a visiting scientist at Oregon State University.