U.S. animal agriculture's consumption of U.S. soybean meal increased by 1 million tons, or the meal from 42 million bushels of soybeans, in the 2011-2012 marketing year, according to a soy-checkoff-funded report. This is good news for soybean farmers since domestic animal agriculture uses about 97 percent of the U.S. soybean meal consumed in the U.S.
According to the study, Animal Agriculture Economic Analysis: 2002-2012, U.S. poultry, livestock and fish farmers used more than 30 million tons of soybean meal in the time period measured, or the meal from more than 1.26 billion bushels of U.S. soybeans. Broilers and swine continue to be by far the two biggest soybean-meal consumers. The meal consumption per species breaks down as follows:
- Broiler chickens: the meal from about 476 million bushels of U.S. soybeans
- Hogs: the meal from about 410 million bushels
- Laying hens: the meal from 84 million bushels
- Turkeys: the meal from more than 75 million bushels
- Other: the meal from about 217 million bushels
