As soybean meal prices have followed other protein products upward, it has become more important for livestock and poultry producers to extract every ounce of nutrition available from their soybean meal.

“Livestock and poultry are our number one customer, consuming 98 percent of the U.S. soybean meal used domestically,” says Phil Bradshaw, United Soybean Board (USB) Animal Agriculture Team Lead and a soybean farmer from Griggsville, Ill. “The U.S. pork industry specifically uses about 25 percent of the domestically used soybean meal, so there is a strong partnership between soybean farmers and pork producers.”

That partnership has led to collaboration among the United Soybean Board (USB), the National Pork Board and QUALISOY to fund two very important research projects. The North American Swine Energy System, a two-year research program evaluating the use of net-energy systems for U.S. feedstuffs. This project is set to conclude in August, while the three-year Development of an Allergenicity Model in Swine project will conclude next May.

“Net energy for swine becomes more important as corn becomes more expensive,” says Tom Brown, USB director and a soybean farmer and pork producer from Morral, Ohio. “Increasing energy from soybeans may provide added nutritional value, so the soybean checkoff is funding research to look at this issue.”

“The National Pork Board appreciates the working relationship we have developed with the United Soybean Board,” said Everett Forkner, a Missouri pork producer and member of both the National Pork Board and its Animal Science Committee. “Especially during this time of rising feed costs, net energy is a new look at how feeds can be formulated to meet the needs of pigs as well as a way to possibly save producers money. This research is going to help us be much smarter with our feed.”

The Soybean Checkoff’s focus on animal nutrition and feed improvement led to the development of the Animal Nutrition Working Group in 2006. This group of 14 animal nutritionists advises the Soybean Checkoff on prioritization of potential improvements in soybean traits that could address environmental concerns, improve available energy, reduce allergens, and improve the overall benefits of soy as a feed ingredient for the livestock and poultry industries.

The soybean and Pork Checkoff programs have partnered in the past to spread the word on the importance of animal agriculture, both to crop producers and to rural communities learn more about how animal agriculture and soybean markets are interdependent, visit www.animalag.org.

“Success for America’s livestock producers means success for U.S. soybean farmers,” says Bradshaw. “Together we help build stronger rural communities.”