By JANE HOUIN
Ohio Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ohio is among the list of states increasingly feeding or considering feeding ethanol co-products to livestock according to a report published by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) with the support and funding of the Nebraska Corn Board.

With the much-publicized expansion of the ethanol industry, there is an increasing availability of these co-products. The question is if and how livestock producers are putting those products to use.

The study shows that nearly half of the cattle and hog operations in a 12-state region reported the increased use. In addition to Ohio, NASS contacted approximately 9,400 livestock operations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin to determine whether they used co-products – including distillers grains and corn gluten feed – in their feed rations in 2006.

“Corn distillers dried grains or solubles (DDGS) are recovered in the distillery and contain all the nutrients from the incoming corn minus the starch,” said Mike Barnes, dairy nutritionist at L.E. Sommer & Sons of Seville, Ohio, who is using DDGS “The DDGS has at least threefold the nutrients as the incoming grain. Since the silage is recycled, the ratio of these more valuable amino acid types continue to increase, so that they eventually represent approximately 16 percent of the final DDG’s amino acid content. No other feed ingredient results from such a great percentage of microbial products and their back stocking.”

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.

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.

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 the survey looked at included distillers dried grains with solubles, condensed distillers solubles, brewers grains and distillers wet grains.

While he has used corn gluten feed in the past, Barnes no longer uses this product in the dairy rations he develops despite its increasing availability.

“We no longer use these because they are low in lysine, and if we use too much corn-based byproducts, we get too much methionine and not enough lysine - which makes it hard to maintain a 3:1.1 ration of lysine to methionine, which we need to keep those amino acids in proper balance,” Barnes said.

Most dairy cattle, beef cattle and hog producers are purchasing these ethanol co-products through feed companies or co-ops, while a majority of cattle on feed operations purchase them directly from ethanol and other processing plants.

Currently under construction in Cadiz, Ohio is Harrison Ethanol: a new 2,000-cow dairy facility and 10,000-head beef facility created as part of Harrison Ethanol’s new ethanol production facility.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture just last month extended Harrison Ethanol’s permit to install until June 12, 2008.

“The Harrison County Ethanol Project is exciting as it is our state’s first fully integrated project,” Boggs said.

This facility is unique in the fact that it would not have any manure storage structures or treatment facilities located within the feeding facilities boundaries and permitted by the ODA. All manure would be automatically collected and transported off-site to other operating divisions of Harrison Ethanol LLC approximately 60 times per day.

Plans are for approximately half of the wet spent distiller’s grains to be fed to dairy and beef cattle on-site with the balance being available for sale to other farmers. The operation is expected to be fully online by June 2008, with the dairy becoming operational this fall or winter.

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.

When considering whether or not to add these products to your rations, it’s important to take a look at the nutritional impact.
DDGS typically analyze at 27 percent protein, 11 percent fat and 9 percent fiber according to Barnes.

“Corn gluten feed is an intermediate protein product that is rich in highly digestible fiber,” Barnes said. He said it may or may not contain condensed corn extractive and can be sold wet or dry, though the wet corn gluten feed (45 percent dry matter) is a perishable product in six to 10 days and must be stored in an anaerobic environment.

“The dried corn gluten feed is made into pellets to facilitate handling; it analyzes typically as 21 percent protein, 2.5 percent fat and 8 percent fiber,” Barnes said. “These feeds are widely used in complete feeds for dairy and beef cattle, poultry, swine and pets.”
Corn gluten meal is a high-protein concentrate typically suppled at 60 percent protein, 2.5 percent fat and 1 percent fiber according to Barnes, and it is an excellent source of methionine.

“Corn gluten meal also has a level of xanthophylls, which offers the poultry feed formulations an efficient yellow pigmenting ingredient,” Barnes said. “Corn gluten meal also is excellent cattle feed providing a high level of rumen bypass nutrition.”
The report is available online at www.nass.usda.gov