Nongrade quality factor influence on origin soybean basis: Evidence from North Dakota

Recent evidence indicates that end-users of US soybeans are placing additional quality specifications in their contracts that are outside those covered by the official USDA grades and standards (such as protein and essential amino acid [EAA] content). This has led some industry groups to publish additional quality data on an annual basis. Using a 14-year panel data set from North Dakota, this study examines whether the release of quality data has an impact on the basis for soybeans at origins. The regression results strongly support the hypothesis that the additional EAA data had a statistically significant impact upon origin basis.