Rumen degradation kinetics and effective degradability of individual amino acids, total analysed amino acids (TAA) and crude protein (CP) of soybean meal were measured on four rumen-cannulated wethers using the nylon bag technique. Microbial contamination of the incubated residues was corrected using a continuous 15N intraruminal infusion and isolated solid associated bacteria as a reference sample. TAA showed a lower soluble fraction (14.9 vs. 20.8%; P < 0.01), a similar insoluble-degradable fraction (79.0 vs. 79.2%) and a higher degradation rate (11.5 vs. 8.4% x h(-1); P < 0.05) than CP. As a consequence, effective degradability was similar for TAA and CP (74.7 vs. 75.7%). Degradability values of individual amino acids varied moderately (range: +/-6% of TAA degradability). Valine, isoleucine, leucine, alanine, aspartic acid and tyrosine showed significantly lower degradability than TAA, while the opposite effect was observed for histidine, threonine and glutamic acid. Degradability of individual amino acids was related to their soluble fraction (r = 0.877; P<0.001).