Soybean promoters are trying a novel sales pitch for low-protein beans grown on the U.S. Great Plains and Canadian Prairies.
“They’re cheaper and they’re not as bad as you think they are. Try them,” Seth Naeve, a University of Minnesota soybean researcher, said after a presentation at CropConnect.
“(Asian buyers) have been really happy.… They’re getting better growth than they expected.”
Soybeans grown in Minnesota, the Dakotas and Western Canada tend to have protein levels lower than those grown in the central U.S. Midwest, which sets the standard.
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Rather than having a breakdown of 19 percent oil and 35 percent protein, which is common in Illinois, northern soybeans tend to have 18 percent oil and 31 to 32 percent protein.
That not only lowers the price that some buyers are willing to pay but also cuts out some buyers altogether. For example, Taiwan has a government requirement that soybean meal have 47 percent protein.
“They can’t take your soybeans and make 47 percent protein at all,” said Naeve. “If they buy your beans, they have to buy beans or meal from India or from the Gulf of Mexico to blend together.”
However, Naeve’s response these days is that northern beans aren’t only different in protein content from southern beans but also in amino acid composition and in sucrose content. In those latter areas, northern beans are actually better.
“The protein is of a higher quality, Naeve said, noting that hogs’ digestive systems don’t require bulk protein. Instead, they need the specific amino acids that come out of the protein, and that’s what is key to growth.
Northern beans’ protein is more efficient because they have a better amino acid content, which mitigates some of the weakness in the gross protein number.
Northern beans also contain more sucrose, which is an energy source that can be used to supplement that provided by corn.
“It’s not great, it doesn’t make our beans better than Illinois soybeans, but when the buyers purchase them and are only looking at the protein level,” it allows soybean promoters to convince buyers to reconsider northern soybeans by looking deeper into the bean, Naeve said.
Northern soybeans receive a penalty compared to Gulf of Mexico soybeans, which appeared soon after the Pacific Northwest ports began exporting large volumes of soybeans in the early 2000s.
The catchment area for the PNW is the Dakotas, Minnesota, half of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, which is “almost a perfect segregation of where the beans are the lowest protein.”
