Determination and prediction of the available energy and amino acids digestibility of full-fat soybean fed to growing pigs.

Full-fat soybean is an excellent protein source supplied in swine diets, especially in weaned and growing stages. However, the high price limits its utilization in practice, so it is vital to accurately evaluate the available energy and digestible amino acids contents in full-fat soybean to better formulate a least-cost diet. Ten full-fat soybean samples were collected from different areas in China, and two experiments were conducted to evaluate the energy concentration and amino acids digestibility of full-fat soybean and to establish the corresponding prediction equations. The averaged digestible and metabolizable energy of FFSB were 4,855 and 4,555 kcal/kg (dry matter basis), and the best-fitted prediction equations for digestible energy and metabolizable energy of full-fat soybean were: digestible energy, kcal/kg = 3,472 + 94.87 × ether extract − 97.63 × ash; metabolizable energy, kcal/kg = 3,443 + 65.11 × ether extract − 36.84 × trypsin inhibitor. Except for glycine and proline, the digestibility of other amino acids significantly varied among 10 full-fat soybean samples but all were within the range of previously published values. In addition, all the amino acids exhibited high digestibility, indicating that full-fat soybean is a protein ingredient with high quality.