A Comparison of Glandless Cottonseed Meal and Soybean Meal in Laying Diets Supplemented with Lysine and Methionine

THE use of cottonseed meal in poultry rations, especially rations for laying hens, has been limited by problems due to cyclopropenoid fatty acids and to the cottonseed pigment commonly called gossypol. Phelps et al. (1965) and Phelps (1966) have published extensive reviews of compounds in cottonseed products which alter the performance of poultry or cause discoloration of eggs. The recent development of low gossypol glandless cottonseed meal resulting from the genetic studies of McMichael (1954, 1959, 1960) has presented the possibility of increased use of glandless cottonseed meal in laying hen rations. Johnston and Watts (1964, 1965a, b) compared laboratory-prepared glandless cottonseed meal, a commercially processed, prepress, solvent extracted, glanded cottonseed meal, and solvent extracted soybean meal in broiler diets. Lysine supplementation produced a growth response in all diets, but the greatest response was with the glanded cottonseed. The authors concluded that the glandless cottonseed meal was equal to soybean…