Newsletter

The staff of the Soybean Meal INFOsource newsletter hopes all of our readers had an Enjoyable Holiday Season and Prosperous New Year.  We hope that 2020 will be a good new year for all.  With this issue we have completed twenty-three years of providing the nutritionist and interested persons the latest information on soybean meal.  We Thank You for your interest and encouragement.

What a Year!!!  U.S. Department of Agriculture is reporting U.S. 2019/20 soybean production to be 3.550 billion bushels which is 878 million bushes smaller than last year’s crop.  Challenging spring weather, delayed planting and a shorter growing season resulted in fewer acres of soybean planted/ harvested and reduced soybean yields.  Total soybean production is about twenty percent below last year’s record crop.  The 2019/20 outlook for soybean meal continues to grow due to increasing U.S. demand by the livestock and poultry industries.

Soybean meal (SBM) is produced using a solvent extraction process to remove the soybean oil; however, several other soybean products can be created by further processing of SBM or soybean.  This research study compares nine different soybean protein ingredients that were processed from soybeans or SBM.  These soybean products include two extruded soybean products (EX), two soybean products produced by thermos-mechanical (TM)

treatment; two products produced by bioconversion using fermentation or enzymes (BC), and two products produced using ethanol-water extraction (EW) of soybean meal.

These nine soybean products were tested in cornstarch-based diets together with an N-free diet for a total of ten diets. Ten ileal-cannulated barrows weighing about 30kg were fed the ten diets for six 9-d periods. The soybean protein products were analyzed and a metabolism study conducted.  Study results were statistically analyzed.

The 9 soybean products contained 35.6% to 66.4% CP, 0.9% to 21.6% ether extract, and 4.4% to 8.0% acid detergent fiber.  The EW soybean products were higher in CP, whereas the 2 EX soybean products were lower in CP), but higher in ether extract.  Chemically available lysine ranged from 92.6% to 100% of total lysine, indicating that relatively minor lysine damage occurred during processing methods.

The apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy was lower (P < 0.05) for soybean products with greater ether extract and ADF content than SBM, and varied among soybean products. The standardized ileal digestibility (SID) did not differ (P > 0.05) among soybean products for most AA, except for lower SID of Arg, Ile, Leu, Lys, Phe, and Tyr (P < 0.05) for EX2 and BC1 compared to the other soybean products. The DE and predicted NE value did not differ (P > 0.05) among soybean products. The greater SID AA content (P < 0.05) in EW, BC, and TM1 soybean products compared to SBM was mainly a result of greater total AA content due to removal of other macronutrients.

In conclusion, extrusion of soybean creates soybean products with a greater energy value but lower SID AA compared to SBM.  Further processing of SBM creates soybean products with greater CP and AA content compared to SBM. Thus, new technologies are available to further process SBM or soybean and will create high-value ingredients that can be included in swine rations, especially for young pigs with high nutritional requirements.

What can we learn from this study? Soybean and SBM can be further processed into value-added products, but the composition of these soybean products is variable and to make maximum use of these further-processed soybean products in swine rations accurate characterization of the digestible amino acid profile and energy value are required.

Each year since 1986 the American Soybean Association, United Soybean Board and the U.S. Soybean Council have supported a survey on the quality of the new US soybean crop.  This survey is intended to provide new crop quality data (composition characteristics) to aid international customers with their purchasing decisions.  This year’s report has been completed and made available to soybean customers.

The survey involves researchers at the University of Minnesota requesting representative soybean samples from farmers.  The request for soybean samples is weighted and based on total land devoted to soybean production in each state in an attempt to closely match U.S. soybean production.  This year 1,226 soybean samples were returned for analyses.  The samples are analyzed for protein, oil, and amino acid concentration by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) using a Perten DA7250 diode array instrument with calibrations developed by the University of Minnesota and in cooperation with Perten.   Regional and U.S. average values were determined by weighting averages based on production values for each state.

Table 1 provides protein, oil and standard deviation data for the various soybean producing states.  The regional averages for soybean protein and oil are relatively small and similar to historical trends.

Table 2 provides information on amino acid levels in soybeans produced in the various states/regions.  There was essentially little, or no, regional variation for lysine (expressed as a percent of the 18 primary amino acids) or for the other essential amino acids (cysteine, lysine, methionine, threonine, tryptophan, isoleucine and valine) measured.  The amino acid balance and quantity of essential amino acids are critical to optimum animal/bird performance.  These results indicate there are only minor differences between regions which result in a consistent soybean meal that benefits feed formulators.

Table 3 provides a historical look at average protein and oil values for soybean meal during the duration of the quality survey (1986-2019).  Overall, the 2019 soybean crop had similar levels of protein and oil compared to the 2018 crop.  Compared with the long-term average (1986-2018), 2019 US soybeans were 1.0% lower in protein and 0.3% higher in oil.  The sum of protein plus oil was 53.1 percent; these values should allow soybean processors to simultaneously achieve both good soybean oil yields and reasonable protein concentrations in the resulting soybean meal.

This study demonstrates that the composition of U.S. soybeans and soybean meal are consistent year to year.  The feed formulator can rely on soybean meal’s consistent nutrient values in their efforts to produce high quality feeds needed for livestock, poultry and aquaculture operations.