Cottonseed protein: What is soybean meal? Can cottonseed protein replace soybean meal in pig concentrate?

Soybean meal is a by-product obtained after extracting soybean oil from soybeans. Also called "soybean meal". According to different extraction methods, it can be divided into one-pass soybean meal and two-pass soybean meal. Among them, the by-product after extracting soybean oil by the solvent extraction method is one-pass soybean meal, while the by-product obtained by first pressing to extract oil and then extracting oil by solvent extraction is called two-pass soybean meal.

The price of soybean meal is rising too fast now. Can cottonseed protein replace soybean meal, and how much can it replace? Why not try it? A small amount should be no problem, right? I don't know.

It seems that Dr. Wang does not quite agree with the substitution.
That cottonseed protein thing is hard to say!
What is the fundamental principle of substitution?
First make a total amino acid comparison before drawing a conclusion! Why substitute? What is the reason? Cottonseed protein is a high-quality protein source for pigs. It can replace no more than 20% without any problem. To replace 20-50%, appropriate supplementation of crystalline lysine and methionine is needed! It will certainly replace part of it! I don't believe no one does this! The crude fiber content of cottonseed cake and meal mainly depends on the degree of cottonseed dehulling. Since the crude fiber content of cottonseed cake and meal itself is higher than that of soybean cake and meal, the effective energy and fat of this type of feed is usually lower than that of soybean cake and meal.
In addition, the characteristic of cottonseed cake and meal is its relatively high crude fat content, which can reach about 6.1%. However, we need to note that excessively high fat content is not conducive to the storage of cottonseed cake and meal and easily causes oxidation and rancidity of the feed.

In cottonseed cake and meal, the mineral content is also characterized by low calcium and high phosphorus, and most of it is phytic acid phosphorus. The content of the trace element iron is relatively high, but the content of the trace element selenium is relatively low.

Similarly, cottonseed cake and meal also contain a variety of anti-nutritional factors, and among these anti-nutritional factors, the one with the greatest impact should be free gossypol. It can cause poisoning in animals and can even cause death in animals. In order to better use cottonseed cake and meal as a feed source, we must solve the toxicity problem of cottonseed cake and meal. It should be said that the most fundamental way to solve it should be to start with the promotion of non-toxic or low-toxic cotton varieties. At the same time, there are several issues to note. It can also be detoxified by ferrous sulfate. This is one method. Another method is that when formulating diets, we can pay attention to balancing the amino acids in the diet, especially by adding synthetic lysine, threonine, tryptophan, or by increasing the crude protein level of the diet, to reduce the toxicity of gossypol and improve the feeding effect of cottonseed cake and meal, thereby improving animal production performance.
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2. Nutritional characteristics of degossypolized cottonseed protein
2.1 Nutritional overview of degossypolized cottonseed protein
As a high-quality protein feed, degossypolized cottonseed protein has a crude protein content of ≥50%, crude fiber ≤8%, and moisture ≤6%. The main component of the crude protein is globulin, about 90%, followed by glutelin. Ultracentrifugation can yield three globulins: 2S, 7S, and 12S, among which 2S exists outside the protein body and accounts for about 30% (Li Yanling, 2001).
2.2 Nutritional advantages of cottonseed protein
2.2.1 High dry matter content
Due to its unique processing technology (liquid-liquid-solid extraction method), its dry matter content in the air-dried state is 93.6%, that of soybean meal is 89.6%, and that of ordinary cottonseed meal is 82.9%, which is 4 and 10.7 percentage points higher than soybean meal and ordinary cottonseed meal, respectively.
2.2.2 High protein content
The protein content exceeds or is comparable to that of soybean meal, and is higher than that of cottonseed meal and other plant-based protein feed sources. Compared with ordinary cottonseed meal, the crude protein (CP) content and net energy for lactation (NEL) are increased by 31.95% and 19%, respectively (Table 1). The crude protein contents of soybean meal (cake), cottonseed meal (cake), sunflower meal, rapeseed meal, and flax meal are 40-45%, 36-45%, 30-33%, 33-37%, and 31-33%, respectively.
 2.2.3 Balanced amino acids and high essential amino acid content, especially the methionine + cystine content is higher than that of other plant-based protein raw materials, which can make up for and balance the deficiency of sulfur-containing amino acids in plant-based protein feed. The composition ratio of lysine and methionine is similar to the ideal protein pattern, the amino acid content is rich (Table 2), the structure is balanced, and the total amino acid content is 49.26%, which is 8.32 and 16.06 percentage points higher than soybean meal and ordinary cottonseed meal, respectively. The ratio of amino acids to total protein is 95.6%, which is 4 and 14.7
percentage points higher than soybean meal and ordinary cottonseed meal, respectively. The methionine + cystine content is 1.49%, 34.3% higher than soybean meal and 22% higher than ordinary cottonseed meal. The contents of sulfur-containing amino acids and lysine are also relatively high. The lysine content is slightly lower than that of soybean meal but higher than that of general cottonseed meal. The composition ratio of lysine and methionine is similar to the ideal protein pattern. Arginine is 5.87%, 10.8% higher than soybean meal and 21.8% higher than ordinary cottonseed meal. Isoleucine + leucine is 4.66%, higher than ordinary cottonseed meal (3.7%) and comparable to soybean meal (5.01%). The EAA:NEAA of ordinary cottonseed meal is 1.0:1.35, while that of degossypolized cottonseed protein is 1:1.09, which is very close to the ideal protein pattern.
2.2.4 The rumen bypass rate is higher than that of ordinary cottonseed meal and soybean meal, making it an ideal rumen bypass protein raw material for plant-based protein feed
  It has good rumen bypass performance, can avoid waste caused by the massive degradation of high-quality protein in the rumen, and improves the intestinal digestibility of protein, that is, increases the effective protein content (Tables 3 and 4). The 48-hour rumen bypass rate of 45% cottonseed protein is 55.8%, which is 54.39 and 16.3 percentage points higher than soybean meal and ordinary cottonseed meal, respectively. The 48-hour rumen bypass rate of 50% cottonseed protein is 51%, which is 49.59 and 11.5 percentage points higher than soybean meal and ordinary cottonseed meal, respectively.
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Cottonseed protein has 50% crude protein and is much cheaper than soybean meal. I just don't know how the effect is and how the palatability is.