Attempts to eliminate from field beans the anti‐nutritive factor which reduces egg production

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Abstract
Attempts were made to eliminate the anti-nutritive factor which reduces egg production when feeding field beans (Vicia faba L.) as a source of supplementary protein in cereal-based diets to laying hens. Neither pelleting diets nor heat processing the beans by autoclaving proved beneficial. A continuous-flow process for IR heating of seeds at 150.degree. C for 70 s followed immediately by flaking (micronization) gave inconsistent results. Beans having a white skin with associated low tannin content did not support significantly higher egg production than a normal brown-skinned bean, indicating that tannin was not the main anti-nutritive factor. A cotyledon fraction obtained by mechanical removal of tannin-containing skin from brown beans did not support higher egg production than the whole bean and the corresponding brown-skin fraction did not reduce egg production when substituted for cereal in control diet.
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