How widely used is soybean meal in farming?
Ninety-four percent of the soybean meal used in the country is formulated into a ration as a protein source for poultry, swine, beef and dairy animals. Soybean meal is the preferred protein of choice in pork and poultry diets throughout the world.

Why focus on swine for the research in the feed industry?
Swine consume a significant amount of the soybean meal produced in the United States. The industry believes that trait-enhanced soybeans will have the largest positive effect on monogastric animals such as swine. Through the data achieved through monogastric animal research, there could be some applications regarding soy consumption among humans (also monogastric).

Why is QUALISOY funding projects such as the net energy project and collaborating with the Animal Agriculture Initiative?
Ensuring that the soybean industry remains the protein of choice for the livestock and poultry industries is critical. As global growth in meat consumption continues, there will also be continued growth in soybean meal utilization. In the last 10 years, global soybean meal utilization has increased 61 percent, and 41 percent in the United States.

When will cattle [swine and poultry] farms be able to source improved soybean meal at large quantities for their farms?
The current market environment for animal utilization is indeed challenging and will take some time. The proposed trait improvements are approximately three to five years from commercialization.

How much of an environmental benefit will the meal trait enhancements have on the cattle [swine and poultry] industries?
The most recent study shows a 31 percent decrease in the excretion of phosphorus in the manure when pigs were fed the low-phytate soybean and had the enzyme phytase added to their diet. Benefits will depend on growth stage and diet, as well as further development in the traits.

What traits/improvements will be introduced first to the feed industry?
The first trait improvements include:

• Reducing phytate phosphorus
• Anti-nutritional factors—lectins, tannins, sapponins, trypsin inhibitors
• Lysine improvements
• Sulfur based amino acids—cystine and methionine
• Oligosaccharide reduction—raffinose and stachiose

What are the health benefits to animals and birds for using the new soybean meal?
Soybeans, like most legumes contain anti-nutritional factors such as lectins, tannins and saponins, which are antagonists to healthy digestion in monogastrics, such as pigs, chickens and turkeys, but also in fish.

What species will benefit from improved soybean characteristics?
Monogastric species, such as hogs and poultry will benefit the most from improved soybean characteristics as their systems are more affected by the anti-nutritional characteristics that are present in soybeans.

Will the improved soybean meal be more expensive for farmers?
The identified traits are very preliminary in their development stages. Once they have been proven to have the desired results in feeding trials, determining price and expense will be more predictable. Traits to benefit livestock fall into either additive value or defensive value. Reducing the phytic acid in soybeans, and thereby reducing the total amount of phytate phosphorus in soybean meal, may very well be a defensive value in the face of continuing environmental regulations.

© 2005 QUALISOY