Multiple academic and commercial trials have demonstrated that higher soybean meal (SBM) diets resulted in better growth performance, improved feed efficiency, and reduced health challenges.

The four key pillars to unlocking hidden profitability with SBM are: 1) Energy contribution of soybean meal in commercial diets; 2) Soybean meal functional bioactive compounds; 3) Soybean meal as a high-value protein source during the late finishing period; and 4) Soybean meal-based diets to mitigate summer weight dip.

Not only has research shown that the net energy of SBM is higher than standard book values, but studies have also determined that feed formulas using SBM with lower levels of DDGs yielded a higher feed conversion than formulas with DDGs. Specific to late finisher diets, trials found that reducing SBM content, whether through replacement with DDGs or crystalline amino acids, caused a significant decline in weight.