Welcome to the U.S. Soy Measurements pages. Information contained here provides compositional details on the U.S. soybean crop. Data is first sorted by crop year and then specific data set.

Purpose of U.S. Soy Measurements:
The inherent value of any agricultural crop is associated with the extent to which humans can extract benefit from it. Typically, this benefit is associated with a crop’s compositional characteristics. The greater the benefit realized from those characteristics, the greater its inherent value.

Translating a crops inherent value into an economic value is the role of the marketplace. Soybeans are currently marketed through a commodity-based marketplace. A commodity market affixes value on the basis of unit volume/mass. Critical to the function of a commodity marketplace is the assumption of product uniformity. A commodity marketplace attempts to adapt to non-uniformity by establishing certain measurable thresholds and associating penalties when they are not met. Product which exceeds minimum thresholds is typically identified and valued as being no different than that which meets the minimum thresholds. As such, its true value is "lost" within the context of the marketplace. Unless somehow captured by an end-user, this additional inherent-value is ultimately lost to society.

If the majority of product moving through a commodity market structure just meets established thresholds, the commodity approach represents the most efficient marketing structure. However, if a significant amount of product exceeds minimum thresholds, enabling its capture may represent an opportunity if the added cost associated with its capture is significantly less than the applied value it represents.

A component-based market system associates value with specific compositional characteristics of benefit to end-users, in addition to volume/mass. As such, it provides for a more efficient use of the inherent value of a crop. However, this comes at a cost which must be more than offset by the additional value captured. As global conditions increasingly strain the world's food production systems, options for improving efficiency, such as that offered by a component-based market system, will be re-evaluated. At the same time, anticipated improvements in technology may lower the cost associated with the capture of lost efficiencies, thereby increasing overall net value. In addition, by placing incentives on improved soybean composition, a shift toward component-based markets will help to drive improvements in the composition of the U.S. soybean crop and associated competitive value.

Defining and enabling the component-market opportunity for U.S. soybeans is the focus of the United Soybean Board’s (USB) U.S. Soy Measurements efforts. The purpose of this portion of the site is the communication of information generated within the context of this effort. There are two major components to the U.S. Soy Measurements effort:

• Defining the Component-Market opportunity within the context of past U.S. soybean crops.
• Enabling the Component-Market opportunity by bringing forward information regarding the use of analytical tools critical to the implementation of a composition based market.

An initial goal is to use the U.S. Soy Measurements information to drive a dialogue within the soybean value chain regarding the component-market opportunity. Toward this objective, USB provides the information contained in the U.S. Soy Measurements section of this site. This information includes:

• Estimates of soybean crop composition for defined geographic units.
• Results from models which utilize whole soybean composition to estimate soybean oil and meal yields and soybean meal composition.  
• Estimates of soybean product value based on estimated product characteristics and market price scenarios capable of being defined by users.

The Component-Market opportunity is associated with the extent to which those soybean components, most associated with end-use value, vary within the U.S. soybean crop. Therefore, in addition to providing average values for each reported geographic unit of observation, also included are ranges (i.e. high value - low value) and standard deviations. Results are presented in a format which allows for a limited level of user interaction regarding the sorting of information and market pricing scenario inputs.

It is recommended that users sequentially move through the following pages of this site. In so doing, users are provided with information regarding subsequent information and its use. In addition, users will note that the level of detail increases moving forward.

A considerable amount of additional work is required to justify a change in market behavior on the scale that will be required to move it from its present commodity focus to one based on composition. An important goal of the U.S. Soy Measurements effort is to attract the comments and expertise of others, and work together to improve both the tools available and the information that is generated. As more information becomes available, it will be added to this site. As feedback is received, USB will use it to improve the information contained herein. Comments can be submitted to info@unitedsoybean.org.

Disclaimer:
All information provided on this web site is provided "as Is" and is intended for illustrative purposes only. No warranty, expressed or implied, is provided regarding any information provided on this web site. All information is provided on the condition that users must make their own determinations regarding any use of this information and must assume all risk associated with any and all use.