Adding by subtracting Removing soybean meal's gastro-irritating component makes it more palatable to chickens and turkeys

By Dan Lemke

Marshall, Minn. — Just as shedding those extra holiday pounds could make our bodies feel better, shedding sugars from soybean meal could make next year’s turkeys grow better.

Soybean meal, used primarily in livestock feed, contains oligosaccharides — sugars that feed bacteria in the digestive system and can cause flatulence. That isn’t a problem for cattle and swine, but it is for poultry. Gastrointestinal distress can lead to disease in birds.

AURI and the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council are looking at ways to
remove oligosaccharides from soybean meal so it’s easier on poultry’s digestive system.
Removing offending sugars may also increase the protein content and make it more palatable to domestic and foreign livestock feed markets, says Dennis Timmerman, AURI project director. “Minnesota meal typically is about 46 to 48 percent protein. If you remove the oligosaccharides, the protein level jumps to over 60 percent, which would be very desirable to poultry producers.”
 

Ground corn and soybean meal are the major ingredients in Midwest turkey feed. “New high-oil soybean varieties under development have lower protein content than … standard varieties, “ says Wayne Hansen, AURI project specialist. Soymeal from the new varieties “will have a lower protein content than desired by the poultry and swine industries.” As the top turkey producing state in the nation with more than 46 million birds raised per year, producing a high-protein meal that satisfies grower’s needs would be big for both birds and beans.
 

Soymeal is the coproduct of crushing soybeans to extract oil, which is used in a variety of food and industrial products, including biodiesel. A burgeoning biodiesel industry could create surpluses of soymeal.

“Anything we can do to make a soybean meal protein that enhances the poultry industry would almost guarantee a better market for soybeans,” says Mike Youngerberg of the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association. “Concentrated protein allows growers more room to add energy to their rations.”
 

Half the state’s soybean meal is shipped overseas. “Concentrating protein increases the protein sent, but in fewer pounds,” Timmerman says. That could open more doors to Asian and European markets where protein deficiency puts Minnesota meal at a disadvantage.
 

A potential bonus may be using the extracted sugars for fuels. Timmerman says oligosaccharides and sucrose will be analyzed to see if they could be fermented to make ethanol. Results are expected later this winter. ■