Caputo, Lock and their team, including former and current graduate students Sam Rickman and Hattie Polson, found that prior to 2026 interest was high among farmers for high oleic soybeans, but adoption was low. Their analysis points to several reasons for why this was:
- Economic uncertainty around yield performance, price stability, and upfront roasting costs.
- Limited processing and market access, with few Michigan processors offering high oleic soybean contracts and minimal local roasting or storage capacity.
- Contracting and licensing constraints that restrict flexible local partnerships and experimentation.
They concluded, however, that despite these difficulties, farmers who moved forward with growing and incorporating these beans have shown how local partnerships between dairy and soybean professionals can create “closed-loop” systems that bolster supply chains, foster shared value and build resilience within agriculture.
Research from Caputo and Lock’s team indicates that even though some soybean farmers have felt uncertain about the input costs and yield performance associated with these beans, a premium ranging from $0.50-$1.50 at which they can be sold in Michigan is helping fuel the decision to invest in them — a decision PJ Feldpausch and David Williams recently made.
Feldpausch, a third-generation farmer of Pat Feldpausch Farms in Fowler, Michigan, and Williams, a fifth-generation farmer of W Farms LLC in Elsie, Michigan, have grown high oleic soybeans in the past, but this will be the first year they’ve grown them to be used as dairy feed. They said the premiums they’ll get for selling and storing them, as well as the cost savings from partnering with local dairies to reduce transportation costs, is a big reason why they’ve bought in.
Read more here about how the high-oleic soybean and dairy industries are benefiting from research and each other in Michigan.