USSEC organized the 1st USSEC Poultry Nutrition Virtual Conference on June 30 for Moroccan customers of U.S. Soy.
USSEC Regional Director – EU / Middle East North Africa (MENA) Brent Babb opened the conference highlighting the importance of MENA markets as regular U.S. soy buyers. He updated participants on the U.S. soybean growing season and thanked supply infrastructure for its continuous efforts in these unprecedented times. Morocco remains the largest importer of U.S. soybean meal in the EU/MENA region with significant growth in feed and poultry production. 25 key participants from Morocco market thanked USSEC for organizing the virtual one-day conference held in two sessions which provided operational information showing U.S. soybean meal role in covering nutritional poultry needs.
In three presentations, USSEC consultant Dr. Svihus Birger, Professor of Poultry Nutrition at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, covered the role of feed processing in poultry production, the effects of particle size and fiber sources in corn-soybean-based diets for high performance and good broiler health. He reminded participants that the art in feed processing is to find the balance between the extent of processing and an optimized nutritional value, while at the same time assuring a sufficient technical and hygienic quality. As corn-soybean meal diets are dominant and nutritionally superior while being challenging to pellet to a sufficient durability for a high feed intake, correct feed processing is particularly important with these diets. Nutritionists and feed managers thus need to have a high level of understanding of ingredient quality and feed processing to be able to produce the highest possible quality feed. Soybean meal is an important contributor to a better pellet quality, which can also be significantly improved through simple processing adjustments.
USSEC consultant Samuel J Rochell, Professor of Poultry Nutrition at the University of Arkansas, reminded attendees that U.S. soybean meal is also a source of metabolizable energy, during his presentations respectively titled, “Evaluating Feed Ingredients for Amino Acid and Energy Availability” and “Realizing the Value of Soybean Meal for Broilers.” He was very pleased to interact with professionals in Morocco’s feed industries and discuss the latest research developments in poultry nutrition. The current situation of dynamic market conditions for both meat and feed ingredients make it increasingly important to help poultry and feed producers appreciate the value of high-quality feed ingredients and implement the best feeding practices for their operations.
USSEC contributes through this event and others to expand the knowledge of a young generation of poultry professionals who learned more about the advantages of U.S. soybean meal and its best use in poultry feeding. As the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to affect the poultry industry, it is also the time to continue to improve nutritional efficiency relying on the reliable supply of available nutrients from high quality feed ingredients such as U.S. soybean meal.