I was trying to find some whole soybeans to put in our feeders today and in conversation with a friend that owns some feed mills he told me that to get the maximum protein from dried soybeans they need to be roasted prior to feeding. Any idea what the breakdown is for dried soybeans, roasted soybeans and green growing soybeans would be?

Hi -

Apparently the protein is more digestable when roasted - at least for cattle.

http://www.dfrc.wisc.edu/RS95_pdfs/fu8.pdf

The breakdown varies depending on the source - here' s an example http://www.agridept.gov.lk/Techinfor.../Sbean.htm#int

you can get more information on breakdown by searching google:

http://www.google.com/search?q=prote...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

good luck -

Thanks, lots of information about whole beans. If it rains again tomorrow I' ll have time to read some more. Didn' t see anything about the green plant nutrition from grazing of soybean plants, but if I don' t find it tomorrow maybe one of the speakers at our QDMA seminar next month will know.

The first link explains the need for heating:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/DS154

The second link gives the optimum time to harvest for silage and nutrient composition.

http://www.beeflinks.com/soybean_silage.htm


Dan O.