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SBM quality
New to this web site but have spending time with blog and podcast. This is more a question than a statement of fact. I have a concern how the SBM is processed. In researching this I found various studies about the heat and duration required to eliminate or reduce the anti nutrients in the SBM. Other than heat, fermentation was also reported to be most effective. I was never able to find a prescribed industry standard, which I expected.
I wrote to a couple of feed companies with my questions and one actually called me. Was not able ever learn the position of the person I spoke to but they had been with the company 33 years. They sold SBM under their name along with other feeds but did not actually process the SBM. This person did understand the requirement of heat to eliminate the anti nutrients but assumed that was being taken care of by the manufacturer. I asked if they tested for anti nutrients she said that they used to but not sure if they still did. She was keenly aware of the need for this in horse feed.
In another search I found a company who strongly believed in feeding soybean hulls along with their product. This was in Australian firm supplying a barn where the horses were all suffering. They found that the soybean hulls from two different suppliers were under cooked. This is where I learned how such tests were done. Here the trypsin inhibitors were so great that not only was the quality of soybean hulls compromised but other proteins as well.
SBM sales are driven by ruminates, foul and fish and I am not sure their requirements are the same as equine. My guess is most processors try to do things right but I struggle with the fact that process standards are not available and there is uncertainty in testing. The fact that some SBM products are labeled not for equine indicate the product may not been processed in a way that is suitable. Could this be a reason we see varying results in Facebook posts when on this diet?
I may be tilting at wind mills but through The Horses Advocate I have learned not to trust the horse feed companies, so why should I trust the SBM processors.
My horse, a 15 year old OTTB, is on this diet and doing well.
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3 Replies
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Hi there, and thanks for asking this question. SBM (soybean meal) is a worldwide manufactured product, and cattle are the primary target for distribution. The protein’s amino acids vary in the distribution in ruminants and monogastric animals (swine, horses, humans). Cattle indeed drives the SBM research; however, SBM as an ingredient is the most abundant plant protein made for all animals.
Your question is about quality control in the process of making SBM. There should be a standard to ensure that in the heating step, all manufacturers are equal. As you discovered, they are not. Under-heating and over-heating both affect the availability of certain proteins. Moreover, if the manufacturer focuses on SBM for ruminants, the process might be different for swine and horses. It is frustrating as a horse owner to stay afloat in a sea of uncertainty. But I might have something here to help.
Horses are fed grains, supplements and one or two types of grasses or legumes. With a diet like this, it is clear that the amount of high-quality protein needed for maintenance, growth, or repair is absent. While adding a particular SBM versus another source of SBM may offer variable levels of amino acids, all SBM add the amino acids not found in a grass and grain diet fed without high-quality protein.
Therefore, it isn’t a matter of trusting a SBM manufacturer to follow a process but rather assuming that any SBM will be in the “ballpark” and provide the essential amino acids missing in the diet being fed without SBM. It isn’t perfect. Imagine your house is on fire, but the fire department won’t spray any water on it because the water pressure isn’t high enough, even though the pressure they have would do something to put the fire out. Any of the different manufacturers of SBM will be beneficial for your horses.
However, there are a few problems with the SBM available for horses. The biggest of these is availability. Many horse owners have difficulty finding any SBM within an hour of their farm. The second problem is some manufacturers don’t make a clean products. Foreign grains, chunks of mold, and unidentified pieces have been found in bags where owners purchased sieves for screening the SBM before feeding. Finally, some manufacturers print on the bag’s tag, “Do not feed to horses.” Southern States is one distributor that does this, but in several letters to them, they replied that they purchase SBM as an ingredient and the SBM in the bag with the warning label is the same SBM used in their commercial horse feed. Further, they said they indicated the warning was to discourage horse owners from feeding SBM as the only source of nutrition.
I have a 50-year history of feeding SBM to horses, and just about every feed manufactured for horses has SBM as an ingredient. All SBM is heated, usually with steam, to neutralize the enzyme trypsin inhibitor. I only recommend de-hulled soybeans because of the potential lectins in the hulls of all seeds. All SBM has their oil extracted, usually with hexane, thoroughly removed due to EPA regulations. Your horse only gets the heated, de-hulled and oil removed soybean – the definition of soybean meal.
I found some resources searching for “agricultural engineers soybean meal.” It is a huge business in America.
https://agricsite.com/soybean-meal-for-animal-feed/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/soybean-meal
https://www.fas.usda.gov/commodities/soybeans
Your last sentence says it all: “My horse, a 15-year-old OTTB, is on this diet and doing well.”
Doc T
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This is not at all helpful but an amusing irony. Here in the UK the SBM is excellent quality, easily available and as “cheap as chips” (fries). It’s imported from the USA!
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Can you help me understand what was “not at all helpful?” Then, when you get a moment, please explain so I can correct any issue.
Many people have contacted me saying that SBM is hard to find, and when they do find it, there can be quality issues. Some people travel for over an hour to find their SBM. Locally, for me, the SBM is of high quality, abundant, inexpensive and less than 3 miles away. Many have found SBM in Africa and, as you say, in the UK with no quality issues.
After reading the material in the links, I was surprised at the variety in manufacturing. Archer Daniels Midland seems to be the largest global manufacturer and distributor of SBM and may have a more standardized process. However, there are smaller, local companies whose manufacturing processes may be different. I think the original question was why there are differences between manufacturers. It may be which animals they are focused on or the company’s size. However, I believe horses consuming any clean SBM will benefit despite the slight differences.
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