By Jack M. Willis
Journal Correspondent

Henry Ford is mostly remembered for the popularization of the Model T, implementation of the assembly line method of mass production, plus the five dollar day which doubled his workers pay per day. But, he should be equally remembered for his extensive soy bean research and experimentation.

By 1933 it was said that he was more interested in the lowly soy bean that he was the V-8 engine. By 1935 every Ford automobile incorporated some form of soy by-products into the manufacture of virtually every component that made up a Ford vehicle. Over the years Ford spent over $4 million on soy bean research, plus an additional $10 million on physical plants and equipment to manufacture soy bean products.

While not exactly in the same league as the wealthy, affluent Henry Ford, Sr., there are two gentlemen over Ferriday way in Concordia Parish who believe they are in the process of "building a better soy bean mousetrap," to paraphrase an old tired cliché.

Ronnie Goodwin and some partner/investors have formed a manufacturing and marketing business to offer fantastic new soy products to the public. Their new venture is known as Ferriday Oilseed and they have two venues which they are actively pursuing--soy bean meal which can be used in the manufacture of a superbly nutritional cattle, swine, poultry and horse feed product, and soy bean oil which is targeting the biodiesel market in hopes of partially solving the nation's dependency upon foreign oil imports.

Goodwin, a former row crop farmer who lives near Waterproof, Louisiana, had resigned himself to running beads as a welder, because farming had just, well, become unprofitable. He is now the driving force behind this relatively new undertaking because of a trip he took with a friend up to Des Moines, Iowa.

He had a buddy who was looking into the feasibility of acquiring some Midwestern technology to utilize in manufacturing rice oil for a client from southern Louisiana. Ronnie happened to go along to share driving, and figured he'd nap while they were in meetings and demonstrations of devices relating to oil extraction.

In one business forum, the subject matter suddenly changed as they began discussing soybeans, the soybean farmer and how the company's processing systems and equipment could be of benefit in reinvigorating the floundering soybean industry. Knowing full well the problems and countless failures he and other farmers had encountered in various agribusiness ventures, Goodwin's ears perked up and he started taking notes.

For six full months after the Iowa visit Goodwin's research into the feasibility of getting into the soybean oil extraction business resulted in some major possible financial breakthroughs for Louisiana farmers.

One encouraging factor was the high residual oil content in the pulverized soybean meal, which translates out into a quicker and cheaper weight gain on poultry, swine and cattle. Another plus is the emergence of the bio-diesel fuel market--one prime reason being, that timber harvesters wouldn't have to worry about oil spills during logging operations, or marine spills during drilling or oil production activities in the Gulf of Mexico.

Goodwin began seeking financial backing with which to launch his dream, but simply just didn't have the collateral needed. Here's where Gary Thornton entered the picture. Thornton is a Baton Rouge-based commercial building contractor and originally from Winnsboro, which is about 40 miles up Louisiana Highway 15. Thornton's business standing enabled Ronnie Goodwin and partners to finally initiate the venture they had been striving to get on line.

Being an astute businessman, Thornton immediately set out to delve into all facets of the business, especially the milling processes, and immediately came to the conclusion that the meal and oil they produce have excellent marketing potential.

The soybean meal has been tested and certified by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry which verifies the fact that the crude protein content is not less than 44 percent. The other product, the oil, is sold mainly to the biodiesel market.

With the meal having such high protein content, the best market for the two products is the livestock and poultry industries where more weight gain for less money is the name of the game. If one does the simple math, one bushel of soybeans will produce 11 pounds of oil and 46 pounds of meal, with the Ferriday plant being capable of crushing 3,000 bushels per day. The plant can accommodate three additional milling lines a day also.

Where Goodwin and Thornton are disadvantaged at present is finding potential customers and educating them to the fact that though their product is more costly, the consumer gets decidedly more bang for their buck. The buyer has to understand they're not purchasing a run-of-the-mill, assembly line, solvent-extracted soybean meal but rather the Rolls-Royce of soybean meal.

The two types cannot be compared, because it's like comparing a Model T to a Mercedes according to Thornton. He says, "For one thing, our product is all natural--there are no chemicals added or utilized in its production. It's more readily assimilated by the body for digestive purposes, and this makes for better utilization of the protein, vitamins, and minerals resulting in healthier animals or poultry, with significantly more weight gain."

The milling process utilized at Ferriday Oilseed is not complex at all. Soybean grain is purchased from local elevators, impurities are blown out or otherwise removed, and an auger moves the beans into a grinder hammer mill which cracks each bean into four segments. The cracked beans are then run through an extruding mill that uses pressure and mechanical friction to pulverize the beans. The resultant friction produces a heat up to 310 degrees which kills any dangerous aflatoxins. Meanwhile, the process also extracts all but about 5% of the oil from the bean meal, which is allowed to cool before it is further pulverized into a smooth texture meal blend favored by cattlemen. Retention of the 5% oil content in the meal makes it one of the best marketing features of the meal.

Additionally, the mill complex has just added a centrifuge in which to further treat and refine the oil, with this newer process removing almost all traces of the fine particles of meal which was formerly retained in the oil, thus resulting in a purer product. One more additional step has been added. This is where the oil is filtered one more time between the holding tank and the transport vehicle.

Goodwin and Thornton readily admit that the meal product is more expensive than other conventional cattle feeds, but their meal product presents more oil, which gives the consuming livestock or poultry more energy and is more digestible. According to Thornton, "Some cattle farmers who have set up creep feeding programs centered on a diet compounded using our meal, have actually been able to reduce the bulk of what they were feeding, but are still achieving the desired weight gain they were seeking."

Another detriment to the dairy and cattle farmers industry in the Florida Parishes still recovering from Katrina is the freight cost of having cattle feed shipped in from the Midwest or points north. Thornton and Goodwin state, "We're right here on top of them and ready to do business."

Not to be lost in the bean meal shuffle is the second product Ferriday Oilseed is marketing also, and that is the oil with which to manufacture biodiesel. Five biodiesel plants will be coming on line in 2006 which will purchase Ferriday Oilseed oil.

Thornton states, "Just think, all of this goodness from the humble soybean, which I call a miracle plant." He maintains the biodiesel market is here to stay--if for but one reason; because it's friendly to the farmer, who is the backbone of the United States.

For more information on Ferriday Oilseed, visit www.ferridayoilseed.com or call (318) 757-7903.

Back