At the U.S. Soy℠-sponsored symposium during the 2026 American Society of Animal Sciences Midwest meeting, Dr. Gonzalo Mateos, Professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, presented on the value of soybean meal from different countries of origin and other factors that affect soybean meal quality.

In this presentation, Dr. Mateos provides explanations for quality patterns, such as the prevalence of fermentation in soybeans grown in hot, humid climates near the Equator, leading to lower sucrose and higher free fatty acids and peroxides. He also explains that infrastructure challenges resulting in longer transport and storage times will negatively impact soybean quality, identifying strong infrastructure as an advantage in the U.S.

Dr. Mateos points out that damaged beans exhibit higher crude protein levels due to the standard methodology of calculating crude protein based on nitrogen level. He explains that the damaged beans have more nitrogen, but that does not translate directly to more protein, because it does not take into account compounds like urea that have nitrogen but are not protein. Therefore, it’s important to analyze for lysine as well to get a full picture of soybean quality.

Watch the full presentation below to learn more. View more presentations from this symposium here.