Amino Acid, Carbohydrate, and Fat Composition of Soybean Meals Prepared at 55 Commercial U.S. Soybean Processing Plants

To quantify variation in U.S. soybean meals (SBM), samples were collected from 55 U.S. soybean (SB) processing plants located in seven of the geographic SB maturity zones at three time points. These samples were analyzed for crude and acid-hydrolyzed fat, oligosaccharide, and amino acid concentrations. Acid-hydrolyzed fat concentrations were poorly correlated (r = 0.28) to crude fat concentrations and were higher for SBM prepared in the southern zones (V-VII) as compared with the northern zones (I and II). Raffinose and verbascose concentrations were lowest (P < 0.05) for SBM prepared in northern maturity zones, while stachyose concentrations were highest for SBM prepared in central maturity zones (III and IV). Total essential, total nonessential, and total amino acid concentrations were lowest for SBM prepared in northern zones. There was variation in oligosaccharide and amino acid concentrations over time, probably due to variation in composition of SB arriving at the plants within maturity zone.