Peanut Meal as a Sustainable Alternative to Soybean Meal in Laying Hen Diets

This research evaluated levels of peanut meal inclusion in diets for laying hens. A total of 200 Hisex White hens, 72 weeks of age, were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments and ten replicates of four hens each. Treatments consisted of replacing soybean meal with peanut meal at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100%. Over a 70-day period, feed intake, egg production, egg weight, egg mass, feed conversion, and internal and external egg quality were evaluated. Economic analyses of diets and estimates of the carbon footprint were also conducted based on life cycle assessment data of the ingredients. Total replacement of soybean meal with peanut meal did not significantly affect productive performance or egg quality (p > 0.05). Increasing levels of peanut meal inclusion linearly reduced feed cost, providing savings of up to US$ 41.81 per ton. In addition, a progressive reduction in the carbon footprint of the diets was observed, reaching a decrease of 26.37% in CO2 equivalent emissions. Peanut meal can fully replace soybean meal in laying hen diets without compromising productive performance or egg quality while reducing feed costs and environmental impact.