Comparison of Soybean Oil with an Animal/Vegetable Blend at Four Energy Levels in Broiler Rations from Hatch to Market

Soybean oil and an animal/vegetable blend were fed on an equal metabolizable energy basis to Cobb broilers over a seven week period in a commercial style, litter floored, curtain sided building in order to determine if there were any differences between the two fat sources when comparing feed intake, gain and feed:gain. All of the birds were fed a diet that consisted primarily of corn, soybean meal and animal by-product meal. There were three dietary phases with each phase having four increasing ME levels through increased fat content. Each phase had eight diets that were fed to 30 birds per pen with six replicates each. Birds and feed were weighed on days 21, 35 and 49 with processing for yield on day 50. The data shows that as the dietary fat increased, in some cases the birds consumed less feed and showed improved feed:gain. Body weight gain was not significantly different, however.