Elbes find profits in Plenish

WEST BEND, Wis. — Lowering their cost of production is a focus for the Elbe family. Therefore, when Chris Elbe decided to start planting high-oleic soybeans and roast the bean on-farm, the idea fit perfectly into this mindset.

“I do a lot of reading, and that’s where I learned about high-oleic soybeans and their benefits,” Chris said.

Chris owns and operates Golden E Dairy with his wife, Tracey, and their children — Ryan, Kimberly, Matt and Kyle. The family milks 2,900 cows three times a day in a double-32 parallel parlor.

In 2023, the Elbes planted 400 acres of Pioneer brand Plenish high-oleic soybeans on their farm near West Bend. From healthier cows to higher components, the Elbes have seen firsthand the benefits of feeding a high-oleic bean.

They hosted a field-to-feed event on their farm June 30 to highlight the benefits and challenges associated with growing and feeding high-oleic soybeans and gave a tour of their roasting facility.

High-oleic soybeans contain about 75% oleic acid compared with about 22% in conventional soybeans. Unlike conventional soybeans, whose fatty acid profile is dominated by linoleic acid, high-oleic soybeans provide more oleic acid, which research has shown to be more beneficial in the cow’s diet.

Plenish is fed to lactating cows at Golden E Dairy from the end of May until October at a rate of about 6 pounds per head per day.

“That’s when we roast Plenish because we’re going to get more benefits in those heat-stressed summer months,” Ryan said.

The Elbes feed conventional beans in the off season as they do not have enough Plenish on hand to last throughout the year.

The herd’s veterinarian and nutritionist, Monty Belmer, said their feeding plan is strategic in trying to maintain butterfat during the summer heat.

“Butterfat typically curves off in a herd in the summertime, but this herd actually went up since they started putting Plenish in (the diet),” he said. “They continue to make a lot of energy-corrected milk by feeding Plenish.”

Cows at Golden E Dairy are averaging 4.2%-4.3% butterfat. In the springtime when switching from conventional beans back to Plenish, butterfat rises to 4.5%.

When starting out, it is typical to see a 0.2% increase in butterfat and a 0.1% increase in protein, Belmer said. As such, the production of energy-corrected milk tends to rise as well.

An improvement in cow health is another advantage the Elbes are seeing.

“We have healthier cows than we’ve probably ever had before,” Chris said. “For example, fresh cows have fewer health events. We’re seeing less ketosis and less milk fever.  We use the CowManager (activity monitoring) system and receive fewer health alerts overall. It’s very beneficial.”

The Elbes built the infrastructure to support an on-site roasting operation that was completed in the spring of 2024.

“You’re way better off having it at your own farm,” Chris said. “The beans never have to leave. You don’t have to truck them to a feed mill…all that stuff costs a lot of money. If you want to feed high-oleic soybeans, build your own infrastructure. It’s one of the biggest areas you can make money and save money.”

Eliminating the need to source fat from faraway places has drastically cut feed costs for the farm.

“The fats we were feeding were starting to get extremely expensive,” Chris said. “They were coming from Malaysia, and all of a sudden went from $800 per ton up to $1,500 per ton.”

Belmer said Golden E Dairy was able to save almost 50 cents per cow during the first year feeding Plenish soybeans. They have settled into a savings of 25-28 cents by displacing expensive ruminal bypass proteins and imported fat purchases.

“Now we can grow something locally, on-farm, and don’t have to bring it very far to the infrastructure to feed it back to the cows,” Belmer said.

Ryan said growing Plenish soybeans and roasting them in-house is an investment that lowered their cost of production.

“A lot of focus in the dairy industry is on what the milk price is,” Ryan said. “The focus should be more on the side of ‘What is your cost of production and how do you lower it?’ Investments like our grain setup or roasting unit have lowered our cost of production, and that’s made it more sustainable and easier to cash flow during the hard times.”

The family typically aims for a 5-year return on investment, but Ryan thought it would take 6-7 years to see a return on their roaster setup.

“There were a lot of unknowns at first, but the investment was relatively paid off in the first year to 18 months,” Ryan said. “It was a large upfront investment. But the benefits to our dairy from milk production and less purchased fat products, when you pencil that all together, is a short-term investment in hindsight, which is awesome for the operation.”

Dealing with limited space, the Elbes built their roastery to fit within the confines of their operation. The 3-story unit is located next to the commodity shed.

“We have a one-of-a-kind setup because of our space limitation,” Ryan said.

Over time, Ryan has adjusted his expectations on product results.

“I was a lot more particular in the beginning, trying to get a perfect product out,” he said.

To obtain a consistent product, Ryan began focusing on proper temperature, steeping time, rolling size and cracking size and adjusts the roaster based on inconsistencies in seed size and bean moisture. Seasonal differences in the roasting process are another factor to consider.

“This is not a plug-and-play system,” Ryan said. “It’s not something where you just fill up the hopper bin, hit start, and walk away. There is definitely babysitting involved. Set time aside in your day to do this because the benefits are there. There is a time investment, but when you start putting down numbers, it’s well worth it for producers.”

Beyond taking a slightly different approach to weed management, growing high-oleic soybeans did not alter the Elbes’ cropping practices.

Bob Berkevich, Pioneer field agronomist, said a farm has to start clean when planting Plenish and use a strong residual pre-emergence herbicide and a solid post-emergence application, usually including more residuals.

“Weeds continue to get harder to control, but rye is a nice strategy for weed control,” Berkevich said.

As they have loosened up more land for beans, it has helped with crop rotation, Chris said.

This year, the family planted 1,400 acres of Plenish beans and had an additional 600 acres custom grown. The Elbes said this should be enough to enable them to start feeding Plenish beans year-round.

“I was never a big bean guy, but when we went to special soybeans, my mindset changed,” Chris said. “I can buy corn anywhere; let’s just plant more Plenish.”