The ribbon cutting was held on Saturday for Prairie AquaTech in Brookings. The company is researching ways to formulate and commercialize soy protein concentrate products for aquaculture and other livestock diets. One of the principal researchers is SDSU Professor Dr. Michael Brown. He says they’re looking at soy as a protein source for fish diets because fish meal prices have risen to nearly $2000 per ton.

Brown says they further process soybean meal to come up with a product that contains about 65-percent protein. They then adapt the product for the various type of fish and are currently running feeding trials in the new facility. While this is a pilot project, he says they will soon ramp up to full commercialization.

The South Dakota Soybean Research and Promotion Council initially provided research funding for three years for the project. Soybean farmer Lewis Bainbridge says this was a good long term investment of checkoff dollars. He says as a soybean farmer he’s proud to be in on the ground floor of this project.
He says aquaculture is the fastest growing protein market in the world and that holds great potential for soybean farmers to supply this feed ingredient.

Prairie AquaTech and the ongoing research is also supported by SDSU, and local and state government.