The Effect of Supplemental Methionine in a Corn-Soybean Diet for Laying Chickens

Abstract

RELATIVELY little is known about the methionine requirements of laying and breeding chickens. Ingram et al. (1951), who fed diets containing peanut meal supplemented with trytophane and lysine as the source of protein, reported that the requirement of the laying hen for methionine is not more than 0.38 percent of the diet and the combined methionine and cystine requirement is not more than 0.63 percent. Leong and McGinnis (1952), who fed diets in which most of the protein was supplied by Alaska pea meal, stated that the level of methionine required for supporting maximum egg production, gain in live weight, and egg size appeared to be about 0.28 percent in the presence of 0.25 percent cystine. No consistent improvement in egg production was observed when Reid, Quisenberry and Couch (1951) added methionine to a corn-soybean type of diet containing 13 percent protein. Mehring, Titus and Waddell (1954) found that the …