Michigan Farm Saves $10K Monthly With New Soybean Discovery

A simple swap in what cows eat is saving one Michigan dairy farm thousands of dollars every month while making better milk.

The Preston family runs a fourth-generation dairy farm in southern Michigan with nearly 1,000 cows. Last spring, they took a major risk by planting 400 acres of high-oleic soybeans, a special variety developed through more than a decade of research at Michigan State University.

Brian Preston, who manages daily operations, knew what was at stake. Those 400 acres could have been used for their regular corn and grain crops instead.

But after harvest, when they started feeding the new soybeans to their cows, results came fast. Within just three days, milk fat and protein levels jumped, significantly increasing the milk's value.

"Our purchased feed costs dropped by 20% per month," Preston says. "That's a once-in-a-generation change."

The science behind this breakthrough took years to develop. Professor Adam Lock and his team at MSU studied how dietary fats influence dairy cows, focusing on high-oleic soybeans rich in oleic acid, a naturally occurring fatty acid.

Their research, funded by the USDA and Michigan agriculture groups, confirmed that roasting these soybeans before feeding could boost milk production even more. Many dairy farms spend heavily on expensive fat and amino acid supplements, but the high-oleic soybeans can replace much of that purchased feed when roasted on-site.

The Ripple Effect

The Preston farm started this journey alone, but not anymore. Seed suppliers across Michigan completely sold out of high-oleic soybean seed last year due to overwhelming demand from other dairy farmers.

Michigan has over 850 dairy farms with about 436,000 cows, and the industry contributes $15.7 billion to the state's economy. When one farm discovers something that works this well, the impact multiplies quickly across the entire agricultural community.

The partnership between the Prestons and MSU goes back generations, starting in the 1940s when Brian's grandfather completed an agricultural course there. But this soybean collaboration stands apart from everything before.

Public funding made this research possible, and now it's paying off in feed bunks and milk tanks across the state. While many universities are scaling back dairy research, MSU's new Dairy Cattle Teaching and Research Center will keep supporting work that leads to real-world improvements.

Preston believes high-oleic soybeans "could change our entire industry," and watching other Michigan farmers rush to plant them suggests he might be right.