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The U.S. Department of Agriculture is estimating world soybean production in the 2018/2019 market year will be 360.993 million metric tons.  Three countries, United States, Brazil and Argentina, are projected to produce 82% of the world’s soybeans. The United States soybean production estimate is 123.66 million metric tons, or 4,535 billion bushels.  

The next chart second chart shows the total world production versus use level.  As one can see the world growth of soybeans has been impressive; growth has increased by about 350% since 1987.  The commercial growth of livestock and poultry is probably closely correlated with this growth. Soybeans are supplying the world a needed source of protein and oil required for growth.

World soybean meal use is much different; domestic soybean meal consumption by China, United States and the European Union accounts for about 56% of the total soybean meal use and the balance is used by numerous countries with livestock and poultry operations.  Table 2 shows how important soybean meal is to the World’s consumption of meat, milk and eggs.

Poultry consume about half of the soybean meal followed by swine, beef, dairy, companion animals, aquaculture and miscellaneous uses.  The poultry market for soybean meal is critical to the health and well-being of the U.S. soybean farmer. WattAgNet recently published FAO statistics on the top ten countries consuming chicken (meat).  World per capita chicken consumption is interesting and expected to grow, especially in developing countries. This is especially good news for soybean farmers supplying the soybean needed to produce the dominant protein ingredient for poultry feeds.

Reference: Clements, Mark.   2019. Where is per capita poultry meat consumption highest?  WattAgNet.com. February 6, 2019.

At the recent Aquaculture-2019 annual meeting, Prairie Aquatech introduced a new non-GM soybean-based protein ingredient (ME-PRO®) to the aquaculture industry.  ME-PRO is highly digestible, 70% protein (as fed) and has highly available phosphorus content. The new protein source is processed from soybean meal using a natural occurring, non-toxigenic and non-pathogenic microbe (Aureobasidium pullulan).  ME-PRO has been extensively tested in the laboratory and commercial operations (inclusion rates ranging from 15-40% of the dry diet) with outstanding results in a wide variety of marine and freshwater species of fish and shrimp.

Researchers at Kentucky State University evaluated cost-effective alternative plant-proteins in feeds for large mount bass.  A feeding experiment compared various dietary supplements (glycine, prebiotic product and nucleotide mix) in a low-fish meal (4%); soybean meal (50%) based diets.  Twenty largemouth bass were fed twice daily for 10 weeks per treatment. Results indicated that the supplementation of glycine to a low-fish meal-high soybean meal diet slightly improved growth and feed efficiency of the largemouth bass.  More importantly, fish meal can be reduced from 44% to 4% with soybean meal supplemental glycine with essential equal fish performance. The author indicated that the feed cost savings using soybean meal should provide for higher profit margins for largemouth bass producers.  

Walleye is a niche-market species that has potential for profitable production in recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS).  Little information is available regarding feeding alternate ingredient, fishmeal-free diets to walleye. This study was conducted to compare the effects of feeding a fishmeal-free diet versus a traditional fish-meal based diet on walleye performance, water quality, and waste production in replicate RAS.  Specially formulated fishmeal-free (FMF) and fishmeal-based (FM) diets were fed to walleye. The FMF diet used proteins derived from poultry meal, soy protein concentrate, and corn protein concentrate, and lipids from menhaden oil and poultry oil. The FM diet used proteins from fishmeal, poultry meal, soybean meal, and blood meal, and lipids from menhaden oil.  Each diet was formulated with a protein/ fat ratio of approximately 42/18. The study began when fish were 85 g and continued for 9 months.

Walleye performance was similar (P > 0.05) between the FMF and FM diets: mean fish weight at study’s end was 589 ± 15 and 571 ± 26 g; and feed conversion ratio was 1.27 ± 0.03 and 1.32 ± 0.02, respectively.  Survival was > 98.5 % for both treatments. Of interest, phosphorous levels were more than two times greater and nitrogen was significantly greater (P < 0.05) in RAS water where walleye were fed the FM diet. Of interest is that the reduced phosphorous discharge related to feeding this fishmeal-free diet could increase the feasibility of growing walleye in commercial facilities AND meeting stringent water quality discharge standards

Each year Evonik updates a comprehensive report characterizing the composition of the U.S. soybean meal.  Samples of the feed ingredients are supplied to Evonik Health & Care GMBH group by feed formulators. Their laboratory analyzes the soybean meal samples and reports values for the various geographical regions that supply the feed industry.  The soybean meal data are representative for the 2018 crop year and are segmented by region.

The 2018 soybean meal has a crude protein value of 47.0%.  This year’s meal values range from 46.5% for the Western Corn Belt to 47.7% for the Southeast.  This year the variation in crude protein and the various amino acids are extremely consistent with previous years.

Western Corn Belt- IA, MN, MO, NE & SD
Eastern Corn Belt- IL, IN, MI & OH
Southeast- AL, GA & NC
East Coast-MD, PA & VA

(*) All values are expressed as mean percentages adjusted to 88% moisture;

Commercial diets used in the aquaculture currently contain marine fishmeal (FM), which has a favorable nutrient profile and palatability, to meet fish nutritional requirements. There is an increasing strain on FM usage in aquafeeds due to the rapid growth of aquaculture and resulting demand for essential amino acids and marine-derived fatty acids. Over the past few decades, a wide variety of plant ingredients have been evaluated as potential alternative protein sources (soybean, lupin seed, rapeseed, cottonseed, carob seed, sunflower seed, pea seed, etc.). Compared to other plant sources, conventional soybean meal (SBM) is one of the most promising alternatives because of its availability, reasonable price, high digestibility, and amino acid profile.  Conventional SBM also has anti-nutritional factors (ANFs) that may reduce the nutritive value of fish feeds. Hence, there is an opportunity to improve the nutrient profile and availability of SBM. This research group developed a new technology to reduce the anti-nutritional factors and enhance the protein content of SBM without compromising the nutritional value. This product is referred to as processed soybean meal or EnzoMeal™. EnzoMeal is free from many ANF, such as trypsin inhibitors, lectin and oligosaccharides (100% removed), reduced in phytic acid (78% decreased), and decreased in total carbohydrate content (31%), as well as enhanced in protein content (22%) without altering the amino acid composition.

The aim of this project was to evaluate the nutritional value of EnzoMeal vs SBM in Nile tilapia diets.  Three practical diets (isonitrogenous: 38% crude protein, isocaloric (450 kcal/100g) were formulated. The control diet contains 12% FM and the two treatment diets wherein 50% FM was replaced by either SBM or EnzoMeal.  Feeding trial was conducted in a re-circulating aquaculture system.

Results from this study reveals that EnzoMeal based fed group exhibited higher growth performance than FM (control) and CSBM fed groups. Feed intake and feed utilization parameters did not differ significantly among the groups.  Overall, this study suggests that there is potential for more than 50% replacement of fishmeal with an alternative, sustainable, plant protein such as processed soybean meal (EnzoMeal) for Nile tilapia feed.

Jose Ortiz, Seunghan Lee, Brian Small, Ramanathan Lalgudi, Barry McGraw, and Vikas Kumar.  2019. Comparative nutritional evaluation of processed soybean meal (Enzomeal) vs commercial soybean meal in Nile tilapia.   Aquaculture-2019, March 7-9, 2019. page 797.

In another growth study the effect of replacing the dietary fish meal (FM) by soybean meal (SBM) and corn gluten meal (CGM) on growth performance, body composition and serum metabolites of Nile tilapia was studied.   Fish were fed 6 isonitrogenous (32% CP), isocaloric (3000 Kcal DE/ Kg) experimental diets in which FM were replace gradually (0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100%) by SBM and CGM. The growth performance indices (mean body weight, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio) were measured.   At end of the growth trial blood samples were obtained for determination of serum metabolites. Then, whole fish body was used for further proximate and amino acids analysis.

The results revealed that the replacement of FM in diets of juvenile Nile tilapia by SBM and CGM up to 80% did not negatively affect the final mean weight, body weight gain and FCR. However, complete replacement of FM significantly decreased the final mean weight, weight gain and feed consumption, while increased the FCR.   The researchers concluded that that the FM in juvenile Nile tilapia diets could be replaced by SBM and CGM up to 80% without significant effects on growth performance, body composition and serum metabolites.

Shimaa. M.R. Salem, A.M. Orma, and T.I. Mohamed.  2019. Replacement of fish by soybean and corn gluten meals in practical diets of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus).  Aquaculture-2019, March 7-9, 2019. page 950.