History of the Use of Soybean Plants as Forage for Livestock (510 CE to 2021)
William Shurtleff, Akiko AoyagiISBN: 978-1-948436-43-4
Publication Date: 2021 July 4
Number of References in Bibliography: 3358
Earliest Reference: 510 CE
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Brief Chronology/Timeline of the Use of Soybean Plants as Forage for Livestock
During the soybean’s first 80+ years in the United States it was used primarily as a forage plant that was fed to animals. Forage applications include grazing, pasturing, silage, and soiling.
510 C.E. – The Mingyi Bielu [Informal Records of Famous Physicians] by Tao Hongjing states that (in China) the leaves of soybean plants can be used to feed livestock. The pods can be used to feed cattle and horses.
1853 Feb. 12 – The earliest known article to mention the soybean (actually the Japan Pea) as a feed for hogs appears in Moore’s Rural New Yorker.
1880 April 1 – The earliest known article to mention the use of soybeans (with green corn plants) as silage appears in France in an article by E.-A. Carrière in Journal d’Agriculture Pratique. Silage plants are layered in a silo, allowed to ferment until tender and juicy, then fed to dairy cows during the winter. Adding soybeans to the traditional corn improves the quality of the silage by adding protein; cows give more milk.
The first silos were underground pits. American innovation in the 1870s led to the first above-ground structures. The first two English-language documents that mention “silo” or “silos” in connection with soybeans appeared in 1889. Silos became popular in America in 1890s.
1882 – The earliest known article to mention “soiling” (or “soilage”) in connection with the soya bean is by William R. Lazenby in the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Annual Report for the year 1882 (p. 95-96).
In “soiling,” green crops are cut and fed to confined animals.
1898 April 23 – The term “pasturing off” is first used in connection with soy beans by C.C. Georgeson in Prairie Farmer.
1903 April – The earliest known article to mention “hogging down” soybeans appears in Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Circular No. 69, by Dwight S. Dalbey. “Hogging down” refers to letting hogs harvest soybeans by turning them loose in a field of green soybean plants who seeds are full or almost full size.
1911 – An estimated 500,000 to 750,000 silos exist in the United States today (Modern Silage Methods, 8th ed., p. 145-46).
1914 March 21 – The earliest known article to mention “lambing off” soybeans appears in Country Gentleman. Lambing off is the equivalent of “hogging down” but using lambs.
1917 July 25 – The earliest article seen that mentions “soft pork” in connection with soybeans appears in The Poland China Journal. Soft pork has a low melting temperature. A note of caution begins to appear. By April 1926 the USDA is conducting “soft-pork investigations.”
1920 March 19 – The earliest known document to mention “sheeping down” soybeans appears in Hoard’s Dairyman. Sheeping down is the equivalent of “hogging down” but using sheep.
1941 – Prior to this year more than half of the soybean acreage in the USA was used to grow soybeans for forage rather than for seed. But U.S. supplies of oil and fat were sharply reduced by World War II. The U.S. government offered farmers incentives to grow soybeans for seed. This seed was crushed, yielding oil and meal.