The Goal is to Improve Soybean Composition

Soybean growers are investing their own funds to enhance soybean oil and meal composition. The program is called the “Better Bean Initiative” (BBI). The BBI program is designed to accelerate the development and eventual commercial availability of soybeans with enhanced compositional traits that focus on the needs of oil and meal users. An objective of the program is to enhance greater demand of U.S. produced soybeans and enhanced economic value for a broad range of producers. To accomplish this objective, the United Soybean Board has embarked on a series of research, planning and implementation activities.

The research priorities for improving soybean meal included increasing levels of certain essential amino acids, improving soy protein’s amino acid balance and digestibility, reducing selected carbohydrates, improving phosphorus availability and improving overall utilization. The research targets will enhance soybean meal’s feeding value and also have a positive environmental impact by reducing nutrient levels in livestock and poultry waste.

Primary targeted traits include increasing the methionine and cystine by 50%; reducing phytate bound phosphorus by 50%; and increasing the metabolizable energy by about 10%. Secondary traits included increasing the digestibility of soybean protein by 5% and increasing the level of lysine, threonine and tryptophan by more than 20%. These traits would reduce synthetic amino acid, dical phosphate and fat supplementation needed for many livestock and poultry diets.
Part of the research challenge will be to make sure that the new soybean cultivars are high yielding and competitive with other varieties available to the soybean grower. Since some of the traits have limited economical value by themselves, it will be important to stack the traits in new varieties to increase their economic value. Soybean growers are interested in expanding public and private research that will achieve these goals to improve soybean composition and make soy protein even more valuable to the meal user.

To achieve this major soybean improvement program, the United Soybean Board is establishing a Technology Utilization Center. The Center will bring together the public and private sectors to develop soybean varieties that bring more value to U.S. soybean farmers.

For more information on the Better Bean Initiative program please contact Mark Winkle with the United Soybean Board at 314-579-1593 or visit the USB website at www.unitedsoybean.org.