The United Soybean Board and its marketing arm have spent a lot of time and resources promoting soybean meal as a replacement for fishmeal and they have been successful.

But now the USDA and a Montana company have come up with a way to develop a barley protein that could replace fishmeal and at the same time compete with soy meal.

A recent press release from the USDA states "Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and Montana Microbial Products (MMP) of Butte, Mont., have developed a barley protein concentrate that could be fed to trout and other commercially produced fish."

The press release said that Rick Barrows at the ARS Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research Unit in Aberdeen, Idaho, and MMP applied for a patent on a new enzymatic method to concentrate barley protein while producing feedstock for ethanol and concentrating a DDG like high-protein ingredient by-product that could replace protein sources like fishmeal or soy protein concentrate in commercial fish feed.

"Feeding trials conducted by the Aberdeen researchers and MMP show that barley protein concentrate successfully replaced both fishmeal and soy protein concentrates in fish feed, meeting the fishes’ protein requirements. And they believe that with some genetic manipulation barley protein concentrate could replace fishmeal in fish feed if other essential nutrients are provided as supplements.

The press release said "Using barley protein instead of fishmeal in commercial fish feed could help reduce the demand for millions of tons of fish taken from the ocean each year to produce fishmeal." But it will also reduce the demand for soybean meal which could make soybean producers unhappy. All we need is more competition.