IPPE: U.S. Soy consistency drives poultry performance and profitability

28 April 2026

3 minute read

By: Phoenix Mintus

South America

North America

Thomas D’Alfonso, Ph.D., Worldwide Animal Nutrition Focus Area Director at the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC), recently spoke to The Poultry Site’s Sarah Mikesell at the 2026 IPPE in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, about the quality and consistency of U.S. Soy. 

Tell us about USSEC in the poultry industry?

USSEC is the international marketing arm for U.S. Soy. We are the U.S. Soybean Export Council, and we work to open markets all over the world for animal utilization, aquaculture, human food, oil and industrial applications. We differentiate U.S. Soy compared to other origins and ultimately elevate a preference for U.S. Soy among our end users. 

When it comes to soybean meal in feed, how important is quality consistency? 

I was trained as an industrial engineer in quality control during the era of total quality management and continuous quality improvement, and it helps us consider all the ways that U.S. Soy remains consistently higher quality throughout the supply chain.

It all starts with the U.S. Soy farmer. Sustainable farming practices, where we use less inputs to the soil and in the crop and use no-till and cover crops – this all helps keep the soil across the field uniform. This means the beans that are harvested are uniform in quality. 

They are higher in metabolizable energy and digestible essential amino acids, and the quality stays at a very high level throughout our supply chain. We have a very resilient supply chain to get the beans and soybean meal by rivers, roads and railways to the end user. Everyone in the supply chain plays a role in keeping that quality. 

I like thinking about a relay race where a baton is passed, and if anyone drops it it’s all over. But in the U.S. Soy supply chain, it carries that high quality to the animal. 

Animal producers and nutritionists can get the maximum value from our soybean meal and have a reliable, high level of essential amino acids and metabolizable energy in their feed formulation. This results in lower feed costs. 

More importantly, the animals tell us that having a source of consistent, highly digestible amino acids and metabolizable energy helps them perform more consistently, and that consistency is important in animal production. 

When poultry arrives at the processing plant within the target weight range, higher revenue is achieved. Getting animals to grow faster means you can have more cycles, which increases capacity in your operation for poultry or feed production. Soy consistency is something that brings value across the entire supply chain, and ultimately for the poultry producer – they will see more profitability by adopting a preference for U.S. Soy. 

Do soybeans from other countries share the same characteristics as U.S. Soy?

Climate has a big impact on soy characteristics. In tropical climates in South America, there's a lot of humidity and moisture, so the beans are harvested at a very high moisture level and need to be mechanically dried. This drying process causes damage to digestibility of soy. 

In these regions, they harvest early, meaning there’s a lot of green beans that are not mature, and they have lower digestibility and consistency. As a result, they’re either less mature or over-processed, and that not only decreases digestibility, but it also makes the beans much less uniform. You can't rely on the nutrient composition as much as you can with U.S. Soy.

How do nutritionists account for that inconsistency or margin of error?

When looking at errors in feed formulation, we refer to this as a safety margin. For example, instead of saying there's 3% lysine in the soy, because of the variability, producers who are not using U.S. Soy have to discount that to as low as 2.5%. This number is significant, and it costs them in additional input costs. This means that US Soy is more than $25 per metric ton more valuable than soybean meal from other origins.