The Soybean Harvest: Techniques and Best Practices

Abstract

Soybeans are produced all over the world for both animals and for human consumption, for the extraction of oil and in a multiplicity of industries. Soybean research over the years, enhanced farming techniques, and the application of resistant high-yielding seed varieties have enhanced inferred yields. Soybean producers in other parts of the world have applied improved processing techniques to develop healthy quality meals and oil extracted for the animal’s feed/food production. Soybeans are characterized by highly digestible proteins and are normally incorporated with a variety of mechanical and chemical operations to generate nutritional animal feeds. Defatted soybean meal (DFM) is usually produced by the extraction of solvent, whereby all of the oil is extracted virtually. When the oil is not needed to be extracted, what is obtained is called maximum or full-fat soybean meal (MRSBM or FFSBM). It was proved to be a very good source of dietary energy since the lipid portion is retained and is highly useful in animal feeds since it reduces the dependence of the feed on external additions of lipids. However, some anti-nutritional factors (ANF) is always in FFSBM when not well heat-treated and being incorporated into a final feed. Some of the above-said ANF affect the internal organs of the animal and the growth rates adversely. Of the ANF that were described, the most important are protease inhibitors, but they are quite heat sensitive with optimum thermal processing. But if these process protocols are lethal, high heat treatment will likely affect the quality of the protein as well as the bioavailability of amino acids in the meal. On the other hand, the failure to heat-treat the meal for an adequate temperature may lead to the meal containing some of the ANF. Incorporation of dietary enzyme supplements in the finished feed to the extent of 2.5% leads to a substantial decline of thermally resistant ANF in the bean and meal. This approach is cheaper and the most frequently used approach among commercial businesses. The quality of the soybean meal after processing, mainly the nitrogen solubility index (NSI), protein dispersibility index (PDI), urease activity (UA), and protein solubility in potassium hydroxide, was determined by in vitro tests conducted at a commercial analytical laboratory. When fully processed accordingly, therefore, we can use FFSBM or DSM efficiently in the diets of the poultry and for the aquaculture to advance economical factor, feed quality, and nutritional content as well as the health and performance of the poultry and aquaculture animals. Value of the meat and/or eggs, which is a basic protein source for many people across the world. © 2026 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.