Editor's note
The evolution of the soya bean crushing industry and meal quality in South Africa
Investment in South Africa's soya bean crush capacity, followed by a significant increase in soya bean production, began in earnest in 2010. From a base of approximately 300 000 tonnes of soya bean produced in 2005 and a dedicated crush of 360 000 tonnes, capacity has grown to an estimated 2,6 million tonnes with a record crop of 2,8 million tonnes in 2022/23.
Early broiler trials in 2018 for South African soya bean meal produced at COFCO in Standerton demonstrated a consistent outperformance of locally produced soya bean meal when compared to Argentine meal, despite higher variability. It took the industry time to adjust to the new norm, with some companies embracing the new availability and cost savings after commercial trials had demonstrated the advantages. This despite the in vitro quality analysis indicating that the meal was not as severely processed as its counterpart imported from Argentina.
In 2000, Evonik began to publish excellent work on the negative effects of amino acid availability in overprocessed soya bean meal. This resulted in a global focus on evaluating the negative effects of overprocessing. Unfortunately, traditional processing quality tests such as trypsin inhibitor activity and urease activity that measure underprocessing, have demonstrated very poor – if any – correlation with broiler performance.
Quest for superior quality
Recent research conducted at the University of Madrid in Spain – and again at Stellenbosch University (SU) – has shown South African soya bean meal being among the best in the world despite in vivo quality tests and higher variability than Argentine meal.
To date, amino acid digestibility and metabolisability appear to be the best current predictor of broiler performance in the narrow range of commercially available soya bean meals. Thus far no rapid in vitro analysis has proven to be an accurate predictor of how various soya bean meals will perform in the fine-tuning of broiler production performance. There is a significant amount of work to be done, and the challenge is to establish a rapid test that is an accurate predictor of how various soya bean meals will perform in broiler diets.
With the growth of local soya bean meal usage increasing from 92 000 tonnes (12% of requirement) in 2005 to 1,3 million tonnes last year (89%) of the required amount, the constant quest for superior quality remains an industry goal. Current trials being conducted at SU, funded by the Oilseeds Advisory Committee and the Oil and Protein Seeds Development Trust, aim to make a significant contribution.
DR ERHARD BRIEDENHANN