Page 38 Stories of the Heartland • Sunday, September 20, 2026 hometownsource. com / heartland /

BY SHEILA MCCOY STORIES OF THE HEARTLAND

More dairy farmers are beginning to feed their cows high oleic soybeans after learning about the benefits. However, what makes high oleic soybeans different compared to commercial soybeans?

Visitors to the High Oleic Dairy Farm Field Day, Aug. 14, had an opportunity to learn more about where the roasted beans may fit into dairy cattle’ s diet, grow and weed control considerations, roasting, processing and quality control and what led the Jake and Brooke Carrow and Miller families to start feeding it to their cows.

Jim Salfer, an educator with the University of Minnesota Extension, said while standard soybeans are high in linoleic acid, which is a polyunsaturaed fat, high oleic soybeans were bred to alter the fatty profile. That was accomplished by replacing the linoleic acid with oleic acid, which is a monounsaturated fat.

“ They were actually developed for the cooking industry because they’ re a lot more heat-stable. It started as a cooking

oil. It fries a lot better and it doesn’ t get rancid, so it’ s preferred for restaurants, snack foods and food service. The stability, reduced risk of rancidity and health benefits also make them a competitive alternative to traditional soybean oil, especially as food companies are moving away from trans fats,” he said.

Salfer said when standard soybeans are fed at high levels to cattle, rumen microbes convert some of the linoleic acid to bioactive trans fatty acids that lead to milk fat depression, a nutritional disorder in dairy cattle where the milk fat content drops significantly without a corresponding loss in the total milk yield. That in turn can lead to substantial economic losses for producers as milk fat contributes highly to the milk value. However, Salfer said, as oleic acid is a monounsaturated fatty acid, it cannot be converted to those kinds of bioactive fats and as a result, decreases the risk for milk fat depression significantly.

Producers may also see a decrease in the cost of feed by using high oleic soybeans. Salfer said as a lot of the rumen inert fats, which don’ t affect the rumen, are imported

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Sheila McCoy / Stories of the Heartland

To meet the volume needed to feed high oleic soybeans to their dairy herd at Enchanted Dairy in Little Falls, Jake and Brooke Carrow opted to install a roasting facility on site.

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