Flipped Thinking

 

 

While grown for their protein and oil values, soybeans are actually made up of many more components. Some of those components, such as insoluble carbohydrates, are not as valuable as others to farmers. As the soybean industry continues to investigate ways to make the most out of soy’s nutritional values, these less-valuable components may be on the chopping block.

 

One option for expanded soybean research is to reduce insoluble carbohydrates to make room for more oil. Increasing oil without decreasing protein will result in the production of a higher-protein meal. Essentially, the bushels produced by this technology have less meal but the same amount of protein, resulting in a higher-percentage meal when looked at from a processing standpoint.

 

“Reducing insoluble carbohydrates in the soybean would give us a more complete product for both protein and oil to offer our customers,” says Dan Corcoran, a soybean farmer and soy checkoff farmer-leader from Piketon, Ohio. “These soybeans will produce a meal with a higher percentage of protein, making them more attractive to our animal-agriculture customers and adding more demand for us as soybean farmers.”

 

“Feeds for rapidly growing animals require nutrient-dense ingredients, which tend to be expensive,” says Dr. Nick Bajjalieh, an animal nutritionist who works as a consultant for the United Soybean Board. “Soybean meal with greater nutrient density can better address this need while potentially reducing feed costs. Lower feed costs reduce the overall cost to produce a unit of animal protein.”