Soy and Dairy Animals

[Ernie]

Some folk are asking if I feed my dairy animals any soy. In the grain I get mixed there's sometimes soy and sometimes not, more often not but the miller sometimes is out of field peas and needs to get the protein content up to my specified 16%. (He's very diligent about telling me what's in there.)

What's the issues with soy? I haven't really found anything in my online research that explains it clearly.

[woodsman]

Soybeans contain antitrypsin factor and trypsin is an enzyme in the pancreatic juice which helps to decompose protein substances. The atitrypsin factor prevents trypsin from working properly and the protein from the soybeans is lost. You can get rid of it by cooking the beans - roasting, etc or getting soybean oil meal which is what's left after pressing out the oil - which does involve "cooking" soybeans.

[backachersfarm]

I don't use soybean meal in any of our feeds either. Partly because our diets are floodedwith soy products of one source or another...and partly because the soybean meal is a byproduct that has been treated with heat or chemicals or both to extract the oils. You can get it with some of the oils left in or put back in might be more like it. The only time I tried this it was rancid. Most things put in processed feeds are byproducts or trash left over from some process that takes a certain product from the grain. We don't feed anything but whole or cracked grains....and lean striongly toward pasture fed.
Sharon

[Ernie]

Hrm. I'll use up what I've got then and try to find something else he can add to the mix to keep the protein where I want it. 16% is my target, but I can let it slide down to 12% for the time being. The corn, wheat, and oats give me 10-11%.

[myersfarm]

I use it in my mix soy hulls 35 % wet distillers grain 45% and wheat straw 20% it is 18 % feed and it cost $140 a ton think those percents are right might be a little off i am feeding 16 dairy cows right now


tjm

[woodsman]

Originally Posted by backachersfarm

...and partly because the soybean meal is a byproduct that has been treated with heat or chemicals or both to extract the oils...

Don't know about the chemicals as I didn't see any around the press used at the local feed mill but the HEAT is what makes the soy more nutritional.

About 6 years ago, he and co-researchers at the center began exploring what happens when soybeans are roasted. They wanted to know how much heat is really needed.

So they tested soybeans heated to varying extents for bypass protein and for the amount of lysine that would be nutritionally available in the small intestine. Their experiments involved rumen bacteria, young rats, and lactating cows.

They found the best treatment to be heating beans to 295 degrees F and holding them for 30 minutes before cooling.

Maintaining that temperature for one-half hour lets the heat penetrate the beans. It also allows enough time for the protein to react with sugar to form a complex that's more resistant to rumen breakdown.

But the real proof of the cooking came when the researchers fed properly roasted soybeans to more than 100 Holsteins; they gave from 3 to 5 pounds more milk per cow daily.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...s_/ai_14673311

[backachersfarm]

Don't know about the chemicals as I didn't see any around the press used at the local feed mill

You won't see this at the mill. The meal comes from a different facility jsut like the brewers grains and other byproducts the mills use in their feeds.

[Allen W]

The old timers always said cotton seed meal makes the hair shine, soybean meal makes em milk.

[woodsman]

The meal comes from a different facility jsut like the brewers grains and other byproducts the mills use in their feeds.

That would be true if they didn't use their own press. It's a mill - not just a feed store.

[Ernie]

Yeah, it's a local mill where the guy puts together various stuff from local producers. It's interesting, because some of his vendors are his customers ... they sell him oats and then buy back livestock mix with some of their own oats mixed in with it.

If I don't use soybeans, what else can I use to up the protein? And out of curiousity, what protein percent have y'all found to work best with Jerseys?

[myersfarm]

mine are jersey's they like my 18 % feed

[backachersfarm]

The other issue with soy that have made some folks try to avoid it is that it naturally has an estrogen like compound in it. I can't give you the tech name of it at the moment. They make naturally derived replacement suppliments for menopausal women. There has been some speculation about the affect thishas been having on children. possibly the reason we have 10 yr olds running around with 16 yr old figures. Plus these girls are developing precocious puberty. The lesser known is the issue young males are having with sexual development. A little bit of anything won't hurt you for the most part....but most folks today live in the fast lane and are largely dependent on prepared foods. You can't pick up a box in the store that doesn't have soy products or a product made from soy in it. Check it out and see for yourself. Sadly...at the first sign of colic the Dr. slaps them on soy formula.
We milk a cow. are feed isn't a real high in protein. We feed corn, oats, and black sunflower seeds. We have a lot of legumes planted in our fields. We got more milk then we could use from this cow. I raise chickens for the freezer and eggs every yr too. It takes a little longer for them to reach size, but that's ok with us. We don't make our aimals live in the fast lane here.
Sharon

[woodsman]

On the common sense level people in Asia had used soy to supplement their diet for millenia, Asian women don't look particularly buxom and if the males were having problems with sexual development how is it that every 4th person in the world is Chineese? And I don't mean it with any disrespect towards Asian people or anybody else - just an observation.

[Up North]

We use alfalfa pellets to up the protein level in our grain. We won't use any sort of distillers grain in our feed. Heather

[DQ]

Originally Posted by woodsman

On the common sense level people in Asia had used soy to supplement their diet for millenia, Asian women don't look particularly buxom and if the males were having problems with sexual development how is it that every 4th person in the world is Chineese? And I don't mean it with any disrespect towards Asian people or anybody else - just an observation.

total dietary consumption of soy is not traditionally that large for the asian population (or wasn't) according to this 1.5%. there is more on the is about the estrogenic effect too http://www.drlam.com/opinion/soyandestrogen.asp

additionally soy is generall consumed fermented in asian cultures not as a meat replacement like it is used now among many other ways. the "benefits" of soy that are touted to the amercan public are a flat our lie. those benefits are based on fermented products used as condiments not freakin soy "meat" loaf.

[woodsman]

If what Dr. Lam writes is true I'm glad that pork is my primary source of protein It still doesn't answer the question how and if adding roasted soy to animal feed negatively impacts the animals or people who consume their milk eggs or meat.

[Ernie]

I'm not entirely convinced soy is a problem either. I went and looked at some of the websites and their science seems dubious. However it's enough for me to use up this 500 pounds and then start getting away from soy altogether in the animal feed.

[backachersfarm]

You are entirely right DQ. Most things won't hurt you if taken in moderation. Moderation isn't in the American vocabulary any longer. Plus the soybean of Asia's yesteryear...wasn't the frankenstein Monsanto calls Soybean in this country today. Of course neither is the corn...but that's another can of worms.
Sharon

[sammyd]

When a cow eats the stuff it is broken down into parts and rebuilt into other stuff. I don't believe that feeding your animal soy will cause your boy children to grow breasts or your daughter to start mestruating early. Whether the bean is op or gm.

[backachersfarm]

When you are talking about sugars, starches, fats and proteins....you are right on a very basic level, but there are more things then sugars, starches, fats and proteins in some of these foods. If they are exposed to chemicals or have bizarre chromosomes spliced into their genetic makeup not much is know about their affects....esp passed on thru milk.