Soybeans

Soybeans are a summer annual legume? crop that has been grown in much of the US for decades.

The harvested seed are separated into meal and oil by a combination of mechanical and chemical extraction processes. Historically, large soy processors have scaled their business to provide the high protein meal needed by the livestock and poultry feeding industry. The co-product – oil – in spite of its many uses in the food industry, accumulated over the years. Surplus oil and the resultant low price enticed soybean commodity groups to promote the conversion of soybean oil into biodiesel.

Processing soybeans yields both soybean oil and soybean meal. Soybean oil serves as the dominant feedstock in the food industry for margarine, salad dressing, and general food processing and production. Soybean meal has no market for human food but is critical to animal nutrition as a complete protein source requiring little or no amino acid supplementation.

The economics to justify profitability was easy at that time, although later increases in the value of the oil changed the economics. While surplus oil was available at low cost, soybeans became the standard for biodiesel production and the benchmark against which to evaluate other oil-producing crops. Currently, soybean oil is too expensive for regular conversion to biodiesel.

In 2009, US farmers produced the largest corn and soybean crops on record¹. NASS plans to resurvey corn and soybean producers in states with late harvests.
* Soybean production totaled 3.36 billion bushels, up 13 percent from 2008 and up 5 percent from the previous record set in 2006.
* The average yield per acre is 44 bushels, up .9 bushels from the previous record set in 2005.

Soybeans in North Carolina

North Carolina is a significant producer of soybeans, and soybeans have been a very common plant feedstock for producing first generation biodiesel.

Farmers have markets other than biodiesel producers to sell their soybeans to, and will choose their market based on soybean prices. When prices for animal feed and human consumption outstrip the price of diesel, the farmer will not sell it to the biodiesel manufacturer as a feedstock. Currently, soybean oil prices are far too high for conversion to biodiesel fuel. It has been suggested that NC farmers could improve their margins on soybean production by utilizing existing crushing extrusion technologies on the farm or as part of a cooperative, where soybean oil is extracted, and soybean meal is produced.

The resulting soybean meal could be used by the cooperative members at significant cost advantage over market soybean meal, or sold at market prices, generating a higher margin than soybeans alone. Additionally, the resulting crude soybean oil could be processed into biodiesel by the farmer cooperative, or sold to a larger scale biodiesel producer.

Quick Facts

* In North Carolina, soybeans are usually planted into moist ground in May and June.
* 88% of the 2005 soybean crop in North Carolina was genetically modified to be herbicide resistant.
* The average yield in North Carolina in 2009 was 34 bushels per acre, up one bushel from 2008 and equal to the record set in 2004.
* When processed, a 60-pound bushel will yield about 11 pounds of crude soybean oil and 47 pounds of soybean meal.
* Soybeans are about 18% oil and 38% protein.
* Soy biodiesel is cleaner burning than petroleum-based diesel oil.
* The crop's farm gate value is approximately $200 million annually, making soybeans North Carolina's third most valuable field crop behind tobacco and cotton.

External links and references

¹ According to the Crop Production 2009 Summary released by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.