Organic Soy Meal

Soy meal is the world's most important vegetable protein feed source accounting for nearly 65 % of World protein feed demand. About 98 percent of soy meal is used as an animal feed ingredient, with the remainder used in human foods such as bakery ingredients and meat substitutes.

Soybeans on crushing and solvent extraction yield soyoil at 18% recovery and soymeal. About 85% of the global production is crushed.

Soybean meal is considered a premium product because of its high digestibility, high energy content and consistency. Soybean meal is a concentrated source of protein and energy and is lower in crude fiber than most other oilseed meals. The higher protein, energy and lower fiber content of soybean meal enable formulation of diets which are proven more efficient in the conversion of feed to meat in for most livestock.

Soyabean meal is available in two grades. Both meals are produced following the same basic process - the only difference being that the 44-46% has some hulls blended back. Dehulled 47-50% protein soyameal is preferred by most nutritionists who wish to achieve a dense ration, as the difference is soyahulls that have no place in rations designed for production. Full fat Soya is the whole bean toasted and provides a high protein source and high fat source. The fat levels are too high for use in Ostrich rations.

Soybean is the largest produced oilseed in the world with production estimated to be around 250 million MT in 2009/10. The largest producer is the USA (90.34 MMT), followed by Brazil (63 MMT), Argentina (53 MMT), China (14.5 MMT) and India (9.5 MMT). Soybean meal used in the South Asia region is in several forms with solvent extracted material containing hulls being the most common. Protein and energy content vary in soybean meal depending on the protein level of the beans, residual fat after processing and whether or not hulls have been removed. The protein content of dehulled SBM ranges from 47.5 to 52% or more and of non-dehulled SBM ranges from 40 to 47% with 44% considered the norm.

All processed soybean meal uses a heating or cooking process to destroy anti-nutritional factors contained in raw soybeans. These components, if not deactivated, reduce nutrient availability to the animal. The most notable of these factors is the protease inhibitors which bind and render unavailable the digestive enzymes trypsin and chymotrypsin. Also important are allergenic proteins such as conglycinin and b-conglycinin that reduce efficiency and increase scouring in very young animals.

Soybean meal is an excellent source of lysine, tryptophan and threonine. The shortage of methionine is adjusted by adding synthetic methionine. The amino acids in corn protein and soy protein combine well to provide a balanced mixture for poultry and require addition of only minimal levels of synthetic methionine to the diets. Digestibility of lysine and methionine is over 89% in properly processed soybean meal. Variation in total amino acid content of soybean meal is lower than that observed in fish meal, canola and rapeseed and most other protein meals.

The energy level of soybean meal depends on residual oil, fibre content and ash levels. Metabolizable energy levels for poultry have been estimated to be 2,300 to 2,500 kcal/kg higher for dehulled SBM versus non-dehulled SBM.

Soybean hull is the product consisting primarily of the outer covering of the soybean. A typical analysis is 13% moisture and varying degrees of protein and fiber.

Precleaning

Precleaning is done in high-capacity machines with screens and aspiration channels to remove undesirable by-products from the harvest, such as stems, straw, stalks, chaff, stones, loose hulls or other cereals and seeds.

Seed drying

• Beans are ideally dried to 10-10.5%
• Minimum 1% drying.
• Bean temperature: max.65°c
• Bean storage(tempering) after drying detaches hulls and equalizes moisture between beans.

Cracking

• Cracking of the beans is done to reduce the particle size.
• Set up of the rolls is extremely important:
• Maximizing slicing action
• Minimizing smashing action creating fines and wear
• Mills with corrugated rolls are used

Dehulling

Dehulling is necessary when producing Hi-Pro meal with following characteristics after extraction :

• Proteins : 48-50% (min 47.5%)
• Lipids : approx 1%
• Fibre : max 3,5%
• Moisture : 12-12.5%

Hi-pro meal is the most recommanded for poultry feed.

Conditioning

Heating up with enough residence time to increase the plasticity of the cracks, and make it possible to flake them.

Vertical stack cookers and horizontal, rotary cookers are both used.

Flaking

The seeds must then be flaked to break down the walls of the oil containing cells, making it possible for the solvent to penetrate the cells and extract the oil.

The main points to watch are the steadiness of the feed to the unit, and the condition of the cylinder surfaces.

Expanding

As an option, the flakes can be expanded.

This is helping the extractibility and the desolventising of the flakes.

This apparatus is very often installed in the purpose of capacity increase of an existing plant.

Solvent Extraction

Flakes specifications:

Oil content:	18-22%
Bulk density:	0.27-0.3 T/m3
Moisture:	10-11%
Foreign material:	max 0.5%
Flake thickness:	0.35-0.38 mm
Temperature:	60-68°C
Over 2.4mm:	min.80% sieve #8
Through 0.84mm:	max.3% sieve#20

Extracted Soymeal

• R.O.C. of meal: 0.5-0,7%
• Solvent loss: < 1kg hexane/Ton.

Desolventising-toasting-drying-cooling

Solvent is removed from the meal in the desolventizer-toaster (DT).

The meal is then dried and cooled in the DC.

For soybean, the DTDC is a heavy utility consumer:

It uses 75% of the SEP steam for meal heating and solvent evaporation and stripping.

Also 75% of the SEP’s electrical power is used for the DC blower and the DT main drive.

The new Dimax® technology makes it possible to produce fully desolventized meal of high nutritional quality, with less steam and less power consumption.

The soymeal is heated up from 57°C up to 107°C.

By evaporating part of the solvent before contact with the live steam, the predesolventizing trays reduce the meal peak moisture, and thereby reduce the steam consumption for heating the dryer air and the DC blowers power.

The solvent in the meal is evaporated from an initial content of about 30% down to < 250 ppm.

The toasting in the DT desactivates the anti-nutrional factors(ANF) in the soybean meal:

• -Trypsin Inhibitor
• -Urease

Miscella distillation

In the first evaporator, 90% of the hexane is evaporated by using the vapor heat from the DT, increasing the miscella concentration from 25% up to 80%.

Solvent content in products and effluents:

• In the oil < 100 ppm solvent
• In the air vented <10gr/m3 of air
• In the waste water < 20ppm.

Produced by cracking, heating, and flaking soybeans and reducing the oil content of the conditioned product by the use of hexane or homologous hydrocarbon solvents. The extracted flakes are cooked and marketed as such or ground into meal. Standard specifications are: Protein, minimum 44%; Fat, minimum 0.5%; Fiber, maximum 7.0%; Moisture, maximum 12.0%.

Produced by cracking, heating, and flaking soybeans and reducing the oil content of the conditioned product by the use of hexane or homologous hydrocarbon solvents. The extracted flakes are cooked and marketed as such or ground into meal. Standard specifications are: Protein, minimum 47.5%-50.0%*; Fat, minimum 0.5%; Fiber, maximum, 3.3%-3.5%*; Moisture, maximum 12.0% (*as determined by Buyer and Seller at time of sale).

It is used extensively in feed for swine, beef and dairy cattle, poultry, and aquaculture. Soybean meal is ideal for high-energy rations such as broiler, turkey, and pig starter feeds. For young animals and birds, dehulled soybean meal is the preferred product.

Poultry :Soybean meal constitutes about 60% of the world’s protein meals, most of which is utilized by the poultry industry.

Livestock :Soybean meal is a common ingredient in feeds for the production of milk and meat.

Aquaculture :Soybean meal can be a major protein source for the production of prawns and fish.

Feed.Technology :To meet market demands, feedmills need to keep up with state-of-the-art equipment for commercial feed manufacturing.

Soymeal is the most popular protein meal of the world. It is estimated that the total production in 2003 was around 132 million tons. United States (33-35 million tons), China (20-22 million tons), Brazil (20-22 million tons), Argentina (18-21 million tons), India (3-5 million tons) are the major producers of soymeal in the world.

In US, India, China crop starts arriving from Aug-Sept, while it starts from Jan-Feb in S. America. The annual global trade in soymeal is around 45-48 million tons.

The major exporters are Argentina (19-20 million tons), Brazil (14-15 million tons), USA (4-6 million tons), India (3-4 million tons) and EU (2 million tons).

The major importers are EU(20-22 million tons), Central Europe (3.5 million tons), Thailand (2 million tons), South Korea (1.5 million tons), Indonesia (1.5-2 million tons), Japan (1-1.5 million tons), Philippines (1-1.5 million tons) and Canada (1-1.5 million tons).

Soybean is the most popular oilseed currently after groundnut is also the largest produced oilmeal in the country. India produces 5-7 million tons of beans, 1 million ton of oil and 3-5 million tons of soymeal in a normal year. Madhya Pradesh (3.5-4.5 million tons), Maharashtra, Rajasthan are the major producers of soybean in India.

In 2003-04 (Apr-Mar), India is estimated to have crushed 51.64 lakh tons of soybeans to produce 42.35 lakh tons of soymeal and 9.3 lakh tons of soyoil.

Soy is a Kharif crop, sown in June-July and harvested by September-October. Peak arrivals are from October-November. India is one of the major exporters of soymeal to the Asian countries. South Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Japan are some of the major importers of soymeal from the country. India typically exports around 65% of the country's soymeal production currently. Soymeal accounted for 84% of the total edible oilseed meal exports from the country.

This leaves around 1-2 million tons for the consumption of the domestic poultry and cattle feed industry.

India, does not import soymeal to meet the requirements of the domestic feed industry, as the price equation inclusive of transports does not work in favour of imports.

In MT
MONTH	CRUSHING OF SOYBEAN	PRODUCTION OF MEAL	PRODUCTION OF OIL
October '2007	304,592.470	244,557.091	54,130.614
	(265,715.403)	(216,461.145)	(48,236.508)
November '2007	425,970.599	346,198.679	76,472.549
	(491,571.568)	(385,169.627)	(91,108.540)
December '2007	353,237.529	286,762.097	62,888.173
	(435,627.227)	(352,017.423)	(77,942.531)
January '2008	219,008.609	177,975.867	38,788.780
	(373,184.885)	(302,984.349)	(65,261.205)
February '2008	198,635.613	159,333.351	34,483.381
	(344,414.348)	(278,070.214)	(60,518.978)
March '2008	126,246.304	103,521.969	22,724.335
	(316,844.487)	(258,476.653)	(57,229.863)
April'2008
	(164,544.793)	(136,183.243)	(30,925.984)
May'2008
	(147,473.412)	(117,133.826)	(26,903.377)
June'2008
	(158,648.571)	(125,981.247)	(28,707.287)
July'2008
	(146,707.523)	(119,088.068)	(26,182.849)
August'2008
	(158,433.123)	(128,557.913)	(28,650.002)
September'2008
	(196,663.124)	(154,560.993)	(35,855.673)
Total (Oct'2007 to Mar.'2008)	1,627,691.124	1,318,349.054	289,487.832
Total (Oct'2006 to Sept'2007)	(3,199,828.464)	(2,574,684.701)	(577,522.797)

Note : Above Information is based on information received by SOPA as on 9th May'2008 and may be go upwards on receipt of the more information.

Oil Year	Estimated FOB Value (Million Rs.)
1992-93	13475.55
1993-94	14036.49
1994-95	9926.21
1995-96	18273.34
1996-97	22771.19
1997-98	28147.42
1998-99	19188.00
1999-2000	15584.40
2000-2001	18900.00
2001-2002	23481.30
2002-2003	14763.00
2003-2004	46566.00
2004-2005	18078.50
2005-2006	37228.70
2006-2007	36190.65
2007-2008	59174.50

Note : Export figures for the year 2005-2006 onwards does not include Export to Nepal, Pakistan & Bangladesh by Rail/Road and figures for 2007-2008 are up to May'08 as per information available with SOPA.