Soybean Meal Quality and Analytical Techniques

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Soybean meal is considered the “gold standard” among intact protein sources used in the feed industry (Cromwell, 1999). It has an excellent amino acid profile that complements cereal grains in diet formulation, as methionine is typically the only limiting amino acid for poultry. Soybean meal is characterized as either from dehulled beans or beans having hulls (NRC, 1994). Dehulled soybean meal has a higher composition of crude protein, amino acids and metabolizable energy than soybean meal produced from soybeans having hulls (NRC, 1994); Soybean meal is known to vary in amino acid composition among samples. Geographical location of soybean production, soybean variety, and processing methods are factors known to influence variability of crude protein and amino acid composition of soybean meal (Parsons et al., 1991, 2000; de Coca-Sinova, 2008, 2010; Baker et al., 2011). de Coca-Sinova (2008) evaluated amino acid composition of soybean meal samples obtained from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, and the United States. Crude protein content varied from 45.2 to 50.6% with lysine expressed as a percent of crude protein ranging from 5.51 to 6.26%. Samples from Spain had the highest crude protein content, whereas lysine expressed as a percentage of crude protein was the highest for samples obtained in the United States. Moreover, soybean varieties are being selected to contain higher amino acid concentrations than conventional soybean varieties resulting in soybean meals having more balanced amino acid content for swine and poultry diets (Baker and Stein, 2009; Baker et al., 2011). Baker et al. (2011) reported high protein soybean meal having a crude protein and lysine composition of 54.86 and 3.56% compared with conventional soybean meal containing crude protein and lysine contents of 47.47 and 3.14%. Soybean meal is known to vary in crude protein and amino acid content among soybean production years and using current amino acid data bases of soybean meal composition are important to avoid variability in diet formulation with swine and poultry (Table 1). Amino acids originating from intact protein sources are not digested and absorbed with 100% efficiency. Formulating diets on a digestible amino acid basis is increasing around the globe and this formulation strategy allows for the use of lower cost feed ingredients that may contain amino acids that are less available to the animal while minimizing nitrogen excretion. Digestible amino acid composition is calculated by multiplying a digestible coefficient by amino acid total composition. Digestible coefficient is the digestibility percentage of an amino acid in a specific feed ingredient or a complete diet. In poultry,