Delivering what your customers want and helping them achieve their goals will keep them coming back for more.

Kelsey Ruthman

August 1, 2018

3 Min Read
Straight from the nutritionist’s mouth

Transparent conversations with domestic and international animal nutritionists help identify areas of improvement, allowing you to better meet their needs. This keeps your product, specifically soybean meal, a top feedstock option for your customers.

THIBAUT MAHE-Formulation Manager, Grupo Nutec Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico

We need consistency from our soybean meal.

Sometimes the protein variations in our soybean meal differ by two points from month to month. This is not what we want from our protein source.

We need stability. When the feedstocks we receive aren’t consistent, we have to make adjustments and assumptions with our formulations to meet our required protein, energy and amino acid levels. That costs us time and money, hurting our efficiency.

For me, I would value assurances that what I receive is what I’ve ordered.

Increased transparency about the protein and fiber levels in the soybean meal we purchase would help us design our rations more effectively. It could potentially lead us to increase the soybean meal levels in our rations.

MIKE BLAIR, PH.D.-Poultry Nutritionist, Devenish Nutrition Fairmont, Minnesota

Consistency. Consistency. Consistency.

By focusing on soybean meal consistency and quality, it would make a difference for us.

For my poultry formulations, because of soybean meal’s high potassium content, I really can’t increase the amount of soybean meal in our diets.

However, I could put a value on the amount I’d pay for soybean meal if the consistency and quality were there.

Don’t overcook the soybean meal. Make sure the particle size is optimal for livestock and poultry. Don’t dilute it with flow agents. Be transparent with your data on protein and oil levels, both with us and with your farmers.

Together, all these things would guarantee us quality, consistent soybean meal, and your product’s worth would go up.

For example, instead of $300 per ton, I might pay you $310 or $315 for higher-quality soybean meal, and I would use a lot more of it. Additionally, I’d consider you a preferred supplier and keep coming back to you for more product. That reliability and price increase benefits you, and the improved meal improves efficiency for me.

OMARH MENDOZA, PH.D.-Associate Director of Nutrition, The Maschhoffs Carlyle, Illinois

U.S. soybean meal has many benefits. It’s readily available, it’s a source of high-quality protein and amino acids, and it’s cost efficient.

There are also several competitors in the market. Synthetic amino acids, distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and soybeans from other origins come to mind as affordable, quality feedstocks.

For me to keep including U.S. soybean meal in my swine formulations, I need the industry to increase the meal’s nutrient density and/or decrease its indigestible content.

To make these changes happen, there needs to be a market system that shares the value with the soybean farmer, since he or she can influence the seed companies to make genetic innovations to the soybean.

For example, drying soybean meal to 11 percent moisture instead of 12 or 13 percent on a weight basis increases nutrient density and nutritional value for my pigs. In addition to drying soybeans at different levels, you can also modify the drying process. For example, it is scientifically proven that drying the meal at high temperatures and for longer times makes the nutrients unavailable to the pig, which diminishes the meal’s nutritional value for the pig.

While these adjustments may take an investment on your end, because it would ultimately improve my own production, I would be willing to pay for the added value.

To read more stories on this topic, visit: http://unitedsoybean.org/7030mag/ 

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