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Primed for niche soybean

By Tim White

Cargill at Sidney will begin taking farmer deliveries of low-linolenic Vistive soybeans Jan. 21 and 22. The plant is the largest Cargill refi nery in North America. The facility underwent extensive refurbishing over the past year to become more effi cient and to handle low-linolenic beans. About $4.6 million in improvements were made to the crushing, handling and refi ning operations.

Step 1 for farmers will be a visit to the probe station. Here a sample is taken of all soybean loads to measure foreign matter, moisture and damaged beans. For the low-lin beans, a test will also be conducted with a near-infrared light to make sure the beans meet the specifi cations of 3% linolenic acid. Since some of the samples come back at less than 3%, Cargill allows up to 4% in their samples to blend.

Beans typically come in at about 13% to 13.5% moisture, according to Brian Spencer, Sidney’s superintendent. They are easiest to dehull when they are between 11% and 11.5%, so some drying must take place. Heated hexane is required to extract the oil. With the new improvements, nearly all of the hexane (99.9%, according to Spencer) is recovered.

?Ample capacity

The plant has the capacity to process 92,000 bushels a day. It holds about 3 million bushels, which is a 30-day inventory, in storage. The plant runs 340 days a year.

The Sidney plant can handle as many as 300 trucks delivering a day. However, the lowlinolenic deliveries have been scheduled so the fl ow should be pretty steady without big lines, according to Andrea Flowers- Guckes, grain merchant. Despite the plant’s ample refining capacity, the low-linolenic oil will not be processed at Sidney. It will be shipped to Fayetteville, N.C., for preparation. “At some time in the future it may stay here for refi ning,” Flowers-Guckes says.

Once the oil is refi ned, it may go to Cargill’s food-services plant in Gainesville or return to Sidney’s food-services center to be packaged. Some will go in jugs or cubes for restaurant consumption for uses like frying or cooking. The rest will be made into sauces and dressings like mustard, mayonnaise or barbeque sauce for restaurant chains.

“We take 95% of our beans to Sidney as it is,” says Jim Berg, a farmer from Wapakoneta. “This is a good program for us.”

Key Points

• Cargill at Sidney is taking delivery of low-linolenic beans.
• The plant is Cargill’s largest North American refi nery.
• The low-linolenic oil will be transported for processing.