The Effect of Processing Method of Dolichos Bean (Lablob

A 4 x 4 Latin sqf!.are experiment was carried out using 4 bancows to investigate the effect of processing method on the digestibility ofnutrients of dolichos beans and nitrogen retention in pigs. Four diets were formulated to contain the control diet with 0.09 soybean meal or 0.33 of the control diet and O. 67 of each of either raw, boiled or roasted dolichos bean meal in diets I, II, III and IV, respectively. In another experiment, four diets were formulated such that O. 18 of raw (Diet 2), boiled (Diet 3) or roasted (Diet 4) dolichos bean meals replaced the 0.09 soy­ bean meal contained in the contro(,(Diet I). These diets were ded to 12female and 12 cas­ trated male pigs in a 4 x 2 factorial arrangement. Feed intake, growth performance and slaughter characteristics were evaluated. Mean values of crude protein digestability and ni­ trogen retention in the raw dolichos meal (50.6% and 18g/d) were relatively lower than in the processed meals (p ~ 0.05). The' corresponding values for boiled dolichos meal were higher (p < 0.05) than those of roasted meal (73.6% versus 65.2% and 12.8g/dversus 8. 7g/d)~ Ani­ mals fed on the raw dolichos diet (Diet 2) had significantly lower growth rates and poorer feed conversion ratio. The two parameters were improved on the animals fed on heat-treated doli­ chos diets. It was concluded that thermC!-processing, particularly boiling greatly improved nutrient availability and overall utilisation of dolichos bean meal for pigs.