Leaf protein concentrates: a comparison of protein production per acre of forage with that from seed and animal crops

The essential amino acid production for ten crops harvested for forage and fifteen crops harvested for seed was calculated from average crop yields in the United States for the ten-year period of 1953 to 1962. Highest yields per acre of essential amino acids were calculated from forages which could be processed into leaf protein concentrates. Alfalfa produced the highest yield per acre of essential amino acids of the twenty major crops; soybean seed was second. The calculated yields of edible protein and essential amino acids of leaf protein from corn were equal to or greater than the protein from the corn seed and several times that from animals fed the corn grain. At the present time, leaf protein concentrate may not be able to compete in cost with the by-product protein concentrates such as soybean meal, cottonseed meal, peanut meal, linseed meal, or tankage for feeding farm animals. However, further study of the production of leaf protein concentrates should be made to assure protein supplies for those regions where other adequate protein sources are lacking.