An animal nutrition company says feeding oleic acid soybeans to dairy cows will reduce milk fat percentage and yield. An MSU professor disagrees.

“There’s a growing body of peer-reviewed research, including our own work at Michigan State University, that demonstrates the benefits of high-oleic soybeans (HOSB) in dairy cow diets,” Dr. Adam Lock, a professor in MSU’s Department of Animal Sciences and interim chair of the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, wrote in an email to Michigan Farm News.

Brian Preston, who operates a fourth-generation, 1,000-cow dairy farm in Quincy, said he reduced feed costs after incorporating high-oleic soybeans into his rations, while boosting butterfat from 4.4% to 4.8%, netting up to 70 cents per cow, per day — even after accounting for roasting costs.

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