USA - Soybean meal projects examine value-added opportunities

A four-year research project at the University of Illinois examining ways to enhance soybean meal's use as livestock feed is winding down with some impressive potential applications for producers and processors, George Fahey, a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and one of the lead researchers, said. "Our goal was to create niche market opportunities for soybean meal in the swine and poultry industries," Fahey said. "One of the directions in which our work is pointing is small niche market processing plants that could produce optimal quality soybean meal. "There are also outreach components which are available to interested processors and producers right now through the Soybean Animals Nutrition at http://www.traill.uiuc.edu//SAND/." The project, Niche Marketing Opportunities in Animal Feeding for Small Farms with Soybeans, was funded by the Illinois Council for Food and Agricultural Research through the Sentinel Program administrated by the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station. Fahey and his colleague, Neal Merchen, led the swine portion of the research with another colleague, Carl Parsons, heading the poultry effort. Michael Hutjens also of the Department of Animal Sciences and Marilyn Nash of the National Soybean Laboratory at the University of Illinois are working on the outreach portion. Randy Westgren, an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, is preparing models to demonstrate potential economic impacts. Fahey noted that a private sector partner, Rodney Frazier of Frazier, Barnes & Associates of Memphis, Tenn., was key in working with soybean processors and in procuring samples to be tested. "Swine use soybean meal better than poultry in terms of digestibility and nutritional value," Fahey said. "We looked at ways, though, to improve its value to the pig diet." An intensive examination of processing methods and times has produced data that will be of use to both processors and producers, Fahey said. "Soybean meal is actually a by-product of the production of soybean oil," Fahey said. "When processors are purifying the oil, they sometimes put by-products -- gums, soapstock, weeds -- that result from soy oil purification back into the meal. One of the things we looked at was the nutritional impact of this and how these by-products may later impede full utilization of the meal by swine and poultry. We also tweaked certain operations in the soy processing plant itself. "We have quantified those findings using both swine and poultry." Unlike many research projects, this one had a strong outreach component from the start, Fahey pointed out. "The SAND web site is one part of that but we are also visiting farmer cooperatives and providing them with our findings. We think there may be some interest in small soybean processing plants that can take advantage of some of the steps to improve soybean meal quality for livestock producers," Fahey said. "There are also intriguing possibilities involving soy diesel production with soybean meal production as an offshoot." The project officially ends June 30 and Fahey said he hopes that many of the key results will be available shortly after that time.