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High oleic soybean demand likely to cause acreage shifts

A feed commodity dealer says more farmers in the Great Lakes region need to consider planting high oleic soybeans.

Harvey Commodities’ Clint Cherney tells Brownfield dairy farmers in Michigan have started to change the demand picture.

“Beans generally leave the state, we are an exporter of beans,” he says. “We are currently importing Plenish beans from other states into Michigan to roast and grind because of the lack of supply.”

Recent research by Michigan State University has found milk production and components improve significantly when incorporating roasted high oleic soybeans into rations.

Cherney says farmers are eliminating palm oil and other supplements with the switch and asking for more beans.

“It is literally double, triple every year,” he shares about farmer demand. “Our problems for next year are supplying the beans to meet the demand for Plenish meal.”

One milking cow consumes about an acre of the beans each year. Cherney says that means more than 450,000 acres are needed just to support the state’s dairy herd.

He says there could be radical impacts if dairy farmers across the U.S. make the change as seed becomes available.