WHAT will soybeans be worth a 

 few years after the war when and 

 if competing oils of low produc- 

 tion cost from other parts of the world 

 begin to flow into this country? Can 

 enough /new outlets be found in in- 

 dustrial uses to maintain a market for 

 the production that has increased by 

 leaps and bounds in recent years? Can 

 bean production costs be reduced 

 through improved yields, better quali- 

 ty, and more efficient planting and 

 harvesting machinery? 



Illinois farmers have a big stake 

 in the answers to these questions as the 

 soybean crop has become a substantial 

 part of their annual income. Scientists, 

 representatives of the processors, and 

 those from other branches of the soy- 

 bean industry were conservative in dis- 

 cussing the postwar outlook for soy- 

 bean products at the 25th anniversary 

 meeting of the American Soybean As- 

 sociation in September at the Univer- 

 sity of Illinois. 



Said Dr. E. O. May, chief of the 

 bureau of agricultural and industrial 

 chemistry in the USDA, "Right now 

 soybean products are in tremendous de- 

 mand, but we are all at least slightly 

 fearful of the future, when the demand 

 may lessen considerably and we may be 

 faced with surpluses. 



"Until Europe is rehabilitated, 

 it is generally felt that fats, oils, 

 and protein feeds will continue to 

 command favorable prices. How- 

 ever, copra and other oilseeds are 

 being stockpiled in the South Paci- 

 fic, awaiting the return of normal 

 transf>ortation. New sources of 

 vegetable oils have been developed 

 in South America. 



"In the case of soybean oil meal, 

 too, the immediate future appears satis- 

 factory, that is, as long as we must 

 feed Europe. There will surely come 



A new seli-prepelled soybean combine 



stirs interest among fanners at American 



Soybean Association meeting tour. 





a time, however, when Europe will 

 no longer need the vast quantities of 

 food we are supplying. We must build 

 for the more distant future when, as 

 in the years immediately preceding 

 the war, soybean products may again 

 have to compete with ominous sur- 

 pluses of other commodities which are 

 equally acceptable to the consumers. 



Dr. May said he believed that 

 when surpluses return, soybean 

 meal may occupy a more favorable 

 position, relatively, than it did in 

 1938 and 1939- Its value as a feed, 

 he said, has been so overwhelm- 

 ingly proved during the last few 

 years that its place in the feed in- 

 dustry is firmly established. 



The future for oil, however, seems 

 less promising unless, through re- 

 search, means can be developed for 

 enhancing its competitive position 

 among possibly surplus supplies of oils 

 and fats. 



There are some optimistic vjews 

 from the research side, however. Dr. 



SOYBEANS 



By Creston Foster 



WHAT OF 

 THEIR FUTURE? 



May pointed out. Films and fibers 

 made from soybean protein now seem 

 destined to assume industrial impor- 

 tance. 



A vast future for soybean oil was 

 predicted in the production of coatings 

 and other polymeric products. 



Soybean oil was described as a mix- 

 ture of materials, some ordinarily con- 

 sidered best suited for use as foods and 

 others that are best used in paints and 

 varnishes. In the past it ha^ not been 

 economically practical to seperate these 

 constituents, but now new processes 

 separate the oil into two fractions. The 

 two portions are worth much more 

 than the original oil. 



Products from this process, de- Vj» 



veloped at the Northern Regional Re- 

 search Laboratory at Peoria are Nore- 

 pol, a rubber substitute, and Norelac, a 

 new resin having remarkable proper- 

 ties. New developments in the art of 

 modifying soybean oil to impart fast- 

 drying properties may result in far- 

 reaching changes in the field of protec- 

 tive coatings such as paints and var- 

 nishes and thus provide a larger out- 

 let for oil than in the past. 



At the present time only about 

 2,500,000 bushels, or about 2 per 

 cent of our 200 million bushel 

 <rop of soybeans in the United 

 States is being used for industrial 

 purposes, according to P. E. 

 Sprague, vice-president of the 

 Glidden Company. Fully three- 

 quarters of this 2 per cent is re- 

 quired for proteins used in critical 

 wartime industrial applications. 



"You have the apparent paradox," 

 Sprague said, "of substantial industrial 

 operations involving relatively small 

 amounts of soya protein. Some of the 

 new uses that we hope to perfect in 

 the future, of which the protein fibers 

 for textiles are an example, will con- 

 tain a much larger percentage of pro- 

 tein and hence step ud proportionately 

 the soybeans required." 



The question of the price that can be 

 paid for beans to make industrial pro- 

 tein lies in the oil market, Sprague said. 

 He suggested that in peacetime the pro- f; 



ducer of industrial soya will need a 

 meal or flake cost of approximately 

 $20 per ton in order to compete in the 

 protein market. From this industrial 

 soya producer's standpoint, beans may 

 sell for a poor price or good price so 

 long as the meal cost is within his 

 reach. Value of the oil is the factor 

 •that means most to the grower, Sprague 

 said. 



On the production side of the soy- 

 bean picture great strides were re- 

 ported by staff members of the U. of 

 I. College of Agriculture and by rep- 



12 



I. A. A. RECORD 



