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Hosted by members of the University of Minnesota Extension Beef and Dairy Teams, The Moos Room discusses relevant topics to help beef and dairy producers be more successful. The information is evidence-based and presented as an informal conversation between the hosts and guests.
Welcome to the Moo's Room. It's Brad here on a wonderful western Minnesota day. Actually, a little cooler today, which I'm surprised. It's been hot and cool. I think it's been the story of all spring here, at least in western Minnesota, but it has been very rainy. At our research center, we've had over 10 inches of rain in probably the last three weeks, and so it's been a challenge to get first crop alfalfa production done because we've just had a lot of rain.
One day, we had six inches of rain. We were gonna cut hay that day, and there was standing water in the field, so it took a little bit. And we're just finishing up, and it's June 14th. So it's been kind of crazy trying to get first crop done when there are people in southern Minnesota thinking about second crop already.
They got early first crop, so it's been a challenge. But our cows are on grass. We have way too much grass like usual. We're gonna cut some of those pastures and harvest for hay, so we have plenty of grass now, plenty of moisture, so it's been going well. But today, I wanted to talk about something. I was at a conference
So I was at the Four State Dairy Management Nutrition Conference in La Crosse, Wisconsin last week, and I wanted to talk about one of the subjects that was quite popular that everybody seems to be talking about in the dairy industry, and that's high oleic soybeans. So I wanted to talk a little bit about what they were, some of the things that were presented between some of the speakers there, just so maybe you get an idea.
I went into the conference, I knew a little bit about high oleic beans, but I didn't really know much at all. So I learned a lot, and I kinda wanna go through some of the highlights that these speakers presented. So there was a few speakers there. One was Paul Kononoff from University of Nebraska, Lynn Davis from Quality Roasting and Nutrition Professionals, and then we'll talk about some stuff that Barry Visser from Vita Plus presented on and some of the actual farm data that happened
So the dairy industry is increasingly adopting these high oleic soybeans kind of as a strategic feed ingredient to really improve animal performance or milk production, and maybe reducing the reliance on expensive purchased protein and fat supplements So these high oleic beans kind of have a dual value.
They serve as both a high-quality rumen undegradable protein or RUP source, and they're a source of oleic acid, which minimizes the risk of milk fat depression. So really successful implementation of high oleic beans require kind of precise roasting. So we talked a lot about roasting at the conference, and that really is to optimize the protein bypass and eliminate any poor quality or anti-nutritional factors that are going on So there's a few things that they had talked about from a quality control perspective, which is PDI, protein dispersibility index, and we'll talk about that in a little bit.
Some talked about how to roast it and a lot of things about roasting quality
So first let's talk about the role of these high oleic beans in dairy rations Well, these high oleic beans really differ from conventional soybeans predominantly in fatty acid profile. So conventional soybeans can increase the risk of milk fat depression if you feed high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids.
But these high oleic beans contain seventy to eighty percent oleic acid and that really is a rumen-friendly fat source. So it's kind of a game changer because it really allows for high fat supplementation in diets without causing this milk fat depression that we see. So that's probably one of the, the main things.
There is really nothing that much different. It just contains higher oleic acid
So the high oleic beans, they also have lower linoleic acid, so that's C18:2, w- and that's significantly lower than conventional beans, and palmitic acid is around six to seven percent
So we talk about roasting and what this all means and how these beans are processed into cows. So traditionally, we have soybeans, we extract the oil, and we get soybean oil, which can be used for, for food or fuel. And then we get soybean meal, which is animal feed. Well, with these high oleic beans, we're not extracting the oil at all.
So we have more soybean oil in the diet, which means more soybean oil in the cow
So when we talk about processing, so a lot of farms have gone to on-farm processing systems, or they have people come in that are doing roasting. So briefly a little bit about some of the roasting. So you have these ro- raw So you have raw soybeans, so you kind of store them. You basically are augering the beans into the roaster, and the roaster heats the beans in two zones.
So you have basically The beans are heated in these two zones with dry heat to improve the protein value and reduce anti-nutritional factors. And when they exit the roaster, so the hot beans exit the roaster and move to a cooling or tempering hopper where carryover heat is removed and the beans are cooled evenly.
And then you send them through a hammer mill or something to crack the beans to their desired particle size and for optimal performance and palatability. And then you can store the processed beans wherever that might be before you mix them into the ration. There's many different types of roasters.
Basically, there's flame roasters, hot air, drum roasters, oil-jacketed augers, electric roasters
So when it comes to affecting
So effective roasting involves three critical steps to ensure even heating and protein protection. So we talked about roasting. There's lots of different roasters that you can use. There's also the steeping process, and this holds the beans at a temperature within 20 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit of the roaster exit, exit temperature to ensure consistent heat penetration, and then cooling.
So you have to cool them. Some use air-water cooling to abruptly stop any re-reactions going on and prevent protein damage So it's kind of the three critical steps are heating. So you heat to 300 degrees Fahrenheit for about two minutes, then you steep them for 30 minutes, and then you have to cool them
And basically the steeping is holding the temperature within 20 to 30 degrees of the exit temperature. So there's a lot of things that are very critical
when talking about roasting these beans
So cooling of the beans when they're coming out, this must be abrupt. And really, if we don't stop what they call this Maillard reaction, it immediately causes serious risks and lysine damage to the beans. So people monitor this through this PDI or protein dispersibility index, and the optimum is from 9 to 11.
If we underprocess and have a PDI that's greater than fourteen, this results in poor rumen protein protection and lower REP in the diet. If you overprocess these beans, you risk protein damage and it reduces intestinal digestibility
So there's just lots of things that heat processing must be right, particle size must be right, and that's maybe 750 microns. So you don't want it to be too fine because there's risk of fat interfering with fiber digestibility
So we really determine the potential of these beans, basically the metric is this PDI. Obviously If you're greater than fourteen, that's under roasted. It's high risk of low RUP in the diet. PDI of eleven to fourteen is marginally under roasted. Obviously, the optimum is nine to eleven, and that's a high-quality roast.
And if it's less than nine, you potentially have over roasted those and risk lysine damage
However, once they're roasted, these high oleic beans are dry and they're stable, but their shelf life clock begins once they're processed and ground because this exposes the oil. So like I said before, the target particle size is seven
The Target Park
The target particle size is 650 to 750 microns for optimum balance. If you have a coarse grind, this increases the risk of indigested fat appearing in the manure. And if you have a fine grind, this increases the risk of milk fat depression and can reduce the RUP value
But the real thing comes with these
But we talk about economics. There's a big economic impact of that, and the primary economic driver for adopting high oleic beans is the ability to reduce other expensive supplements in the diet. Because they have high quality RUP, there's lots of fat, so you can basically reduce or remove entirely bypass fats, so palm fats, calcium salts, and expensive supplemental blends.
Expensive proteins, you might be able to reduce some blood meal and high quality heat-treated soybeans or corn distillers And because these hyolaic beans are so nutrient-dense, sometimes cottonseed and corn distillers are scaled back in the ration
Typically, the feeding rates for these Ohio Lake beans typically range from three to eight pounds per head per day, with about four to six pounds being the most common
So Barry from Vita Plus presented a couple ha- case studies on two farms. So we had herd A, it was 1,500 milking cows. They had a, they were feeding a full rate of high oleic beans, about six and a half pounds per cow, and they saw an immediate impact when butterfat jumped from 4.34% to 4.58%, and energy corrected milk went from 102 to 108 pounds per day.
This basically, this shift cost savings were estimated about 14 cents per head per day, and that was feeding 6.5 pounds per day
Herd B is 2,500 milking cows The feeding range on these high-oleic beans was five to six pounds per head per day, depending on the group. They reduced palm fat and calcium salts by about a half a pound per head per day. They re-reduced Amino Plus, blood meal, and soybean meal In this herd, their cost savings was about five to eight cents per head per day
But really with these costs, we need to kind of look at them from an opportunity cost. So you think about a 500 cow, you might see a net profit of about $135,000 a year from feeding high oleic beans, and you must really weigh that return on investment against the marketing alternative. So growing and selling those beans on the open market at a projected $12 a bish- bushel, maybe with a, a dollar premium.
So basically every farm must have
its own specific economics to really see if it does pay for itself. You know, both of these herds that they presented had about a cost savings from five to 14 cents per day by feeding high oleic beans. So really there's maybe something to it
So what are some pros and cons of high oleic beans? Well, the pros are you reduce purchase feed cost. There's a potential to raise a large portion of purchased protein and fat yourselves. You get improved milk and milk fat yield. It also helps in your crop rotation, providing less risk and harvest management compared to other protein crops such as alfalfa Well, what are the cons?
Well, it's relatively new seed technology, so
Some of these seeds may be limited on herbicide and pesticide options, but obviously that's coming into the future. We have to think about opportunity cost and what the return on investment is for these beans. And logistics, you know, logistics of storing them, roasting them, processing them. They can only be used for animal feed.
So there's lots of different things related to that. So really there's maybe nothing magical about these high oleic beans. They're certainly not a silver bullet, but they may have some cost savings and performance may depending on the starting point and the current ration. You know, what are your RUP levels?
What supplemental fat are you feeding But basic, basic diets with little or no supplemental fat and RUP sources typically see the best results with little or no cost savings. But really, you need to work through these partial budgets to see if it's really worth either purchasing them or raising them.
Obviously, on-farm roasting is not for everyone 'cause it takes a lot of management, lots of continuous monitoring, and there's maybe some potential agronomic challenges that come with this. So basically, high oleic beans, they represent a big shift in farm nutritional precision. Basically, by producing our own bypass fat and protein, we can really take back control of these rations and maybe our herd potential So in the future, we might see more of these high oleic beans.
It certainly sounds interesting. I learned a lot at the conference about these beans, and maybe you did too by listening to a, a little bit of idea on, on what these are. I'm sure we'll hear a lot more about them into the future. So with that, if you have any comments, questions, or scathing rebuttals, feel free to contact me at the Moose Room.
That's T-H-E-M-O-O-S-R-O-O-M @umn.edu or find me on the web, University of Minnesota Livestock Extension, or UMN WCROC Dairy. And with that, I hope you have a great week. Bye.