Substitution of fixed amounts of soyabean meal for field beans (Vicia faba), sweet lupins (Lupinus albus), cull peas (Pisum sativum) and vetchs (Vicia sativa) in diets for high performance laying leghorn hens

Abstract

1. An experiment was conducted to establish the effect of increasing the dietary amounts of field beans, sweet lupins, cull peas and vetchs on the productivity of high performance laying hens.

2. There was a significant negative relationship (P<0.001) between the dietary concentration of beans and vetchs and food intake, egg production and food to egg ratio.

3. The inclusion of peas or lupins up to 300 and 200 g/kg, respectively, did not affect productivity (P>0.05).

4. The diets with vetchs and the highest amounts of the other three legumes caused egg production to decline in the last week (P<0.01), compared to the beginning of the experiment. This effect seems to indicate an accumulation of toxicants in the organs of the birds.