A technical writer for the Pork Network investigated whether feeding higher levels of soybean meal makes good economic sense with the recent lower corn and soybean meal ingredient prices. Soybean meal use is normally related to its price, composition, availability and anticipated production expectations. There is a trend to include higher levels of SBM in rations for younger animals that have greater need for amino acids. The writer discusses SBM’s advantage in providing levels of digestible amino acids that complement cereal gains needed for optimum pig performance and interest in determining if extra SBM could further improve performance.

The article referred to four research trials conducted by Hubbard Feeds that looked at performance of pigs feed higher levels of properly processed SBM. The research trials demonstrated that pigs fed the higher levels of SBM did not experience adverse performance. In fact, average daily gains were increased slightly in three of the four trails and the feed required per daily gain was essentially the same for the four trials. The writer concluded that a better understanding of soybean processing and how it affects nutrient digestibility has led to a more consistent SBM with higher protein, lysine an amino acid digestibility. She also cited advances in wet chemistry and NIR technologies have contributed to better feed formulation to achieve optimum pig performance.