Contact: Ellen
Dougherty, (202) 690-8122
Scott Hollis (202) 720-4751
New Study Looks at Livestock Operators Use of Ethanol Co-Products in Feed
WASHINGTON,
Jun. 29, 2007 – Roughly half of the cattle
and hog operations in a 12-state region either fed ethanol
co-products or considered feeding them to their livestock
last year, according to a report published today by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics
Service (NASS) with the support and funding of the Nebraska
Corn Board.
Among dairy operations, 38 percent indicated that they fed
co-products during 2006 and another 22 percent considered
doing so. Among cattle on feed operations, 36 percent fed
co-products and 34 percent more considered it. Among beef
cattle operations, 13 percent reported that they fed co-products
and 30 percent considered it. For hog operations, 12 percent
fed co-products and 35 percent considered it.
NASS contacted approximately 9,400 livestock operations in
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri,
Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin to
determine whether they used co-products – including
distillers grains and corn gluten feed – in their feed
rations in 2006. NASS collected information regarding the
types and amounts of co-products fed, how the co-products
were procured and used, and what concerns and barriers may
have prevented operations from feeding co-products.
Of the various types of co-products available to operations
for feeding, corn gluten feed was used by 46 percent of beef
cow operations and 38 percent of cattle on feed operations,
while distillers dried grains were used by 45 percent of dairy
cattle operations and 44 percent of hog operations Other co-products
that the survey looked at included distillers dried grains
with solubles, condensed distillers solubles, brewers grains
and distillers wet grains.
Where do livestock operators get their ethanol co-products?
Most dairy cattle, beef cattle and hog producers purchase
them through feed companies or co-ops, while a majority of
cattle on feed operations purchase them directly from ethanol
and other processing plants.
Livestock operations that are not currently using ethanol
co-products indicated that availability is the primary impediment.
Infrastructure and handling issues are also a barrier as,
to a lesser extent, is cost.
Ethanol Co-Products Used for Livestock Feed and all other NASS reports are available online at
www.nass.usda.gov.
