Soybeans are primarily processed for their oil, which leads to the generation of two main byproducts: soybean meal and soy hulls. Soy hulls are actually the skin of the soybean that comes off during processing. These soy hulls are quite small in size and not very dense. Therefore, many soy hulls are pelletized to increase ease of handling and bulk density. When it comes to nutritional value, bulk and pelleted hulls are equal. Most of the time, soy hulls are priced competitively with corn. In order to determine which is the best buy, we must first determine how they compare on a nutritional basis. The two nutrients we are most interested in are energy and protein. Corn contains 90% TDN (total digestible nutrients, energy content index) and 8-10% protein. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Soy hulls aren't that simple. In fact, three different publications give them three different energy values. The 1984 NRC publication for beef cattle indicates them at 64% of the TDN, that of 1996 for beef cattle indicates them at 80% of the TDN and the latest publication of the NRC for dairy cattle gives them a value of 77 % of TDN. Everyone agrees that they contain around 12% crude protein. Why this gap in the content of the TDN? Mainly because of the way they are used. If we were to feed one group of cattle a diet containing 90% corn and another group a diet containing 90% soy hulls, the results would show that corn would provide gains 10-20% faster than soy hulls. soy. However, when we feed diets that contain only a small portion of the diet in the form of corn or soy hulls, soy hulls provide gains equal to those provided by corn. For example, we have a group of cows that have just started calving. They consume about 25 pounds of hay per day, but now that they are calving, we need to supplement the hay. Let's compare corn and soy husks. We supplement with 5 pounds of corn per day and the end result is that the cows are now consuming the 5 pounds of corn but their hay consumption drops to about 18 or 19 pounds per day. Their total energy intake is even higher than it was when they were consuming 25 pounds of hay, but corn is negatively impacting total intake (now at around 23 or 24 pounds) and will also decrease digestibility hay. The comparison is that we supplement with 5 pounds of soy hulls per day. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Now the end result will be that they will consume the 5 pounds of soybean hulls and about 21 to 22 pounds of hay per day and the digestibility of the hay can be improved. Although soybean hulls contain less TDN per pound than corn, they are equal to corn as a supplement for forage-consuming cattle due to their positive impact on forage consumption and digestibility. In addition to the positive effects on the TDN fraction, they also contain more protein than corn. These same effects can be seen when soy hulls replace corn in a broiler litter diet...