New Soybean Meal Fact Sheet

Dr. Glen Broderick (U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center, USDA/ARS) wrote the fact sheet, “Soybean Use-Dairy Cattle”.   He pointed out that soybean meal has long been the standard protein for dairy cows in North America.  The fact sheet discusses how high producing dairy cows have a very high requirement for metabolizable protein that can be met by a combination of protein produced by the microbes in the rumen plus dietary protein that escapes the rumen undegraded.  Soybean meal provides a source of needed amino acids to promote growth of the microbes and a source of undegraded protein for digestion in the lower gut.  The role of heat-treated soybean proteins, in the form of roasted soybeans, extruded soybeans, expelled soybean meal, and specially processed soybean meals, in meeting the dairy cow’s amino acid requirements were discussed.  Dr. Broderick cited several technical papers that supported the value of soybean protein in high-producing dairy rations.