By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The number of cattle and hog operations in the United States which use ethanol co-products such as distillers dried grains (DDGs) as livestock feed is on the rise, according to a survey of 9,000 Midwestern farmers conducted by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

In 2006, ethanol co-products were fed to livestock at 38 percent of dairy operations, 36 percent of cattle-on-feed operations, 13 percent of beef cattle operations and 12 percent of hog operations – figures that Illinois Corn Marketing Board (ICMB) chairman Wendell Shauman called unsurprising.

“A lot of distillers dried grains are being produced, and they have excellent feed value,” said Shauman, a corn producer from Kirkwood, Ill., in a prepared statement.

“It is still good to see the facts back up corn growers’ assertion that we can and will meet the needs of livestock industry even with the rapid expansion of ethanol production.”

According to information published by the Iowa Department of Agriculture’s Office of Renewable Fuels & Co-Products, in just over two decades U.S. ethanol production capacity rose from virtually zero to more than two billion gallons a year, with dry mill processing plants producing approximately 55 percent of the nation’s ethanol.

But in recent years, nearly all the new ethanol plants built are dry mill facilities, leading to a vast increase in the volume of DDGs produced.

One bushel of corn can produce 18 pounds (2.72 gallons) of ethanol and approximately 17 pounds of distiller’s grains in many forms, including distillers dried solubles, DDGs, condensed distillers solubles, distillers wet grains and distillers dried grain with solubles (DDGS).

Livestock operations not currently utilizing ethanol co-products indicated that lack of availability was the main reason, the survey found.

“The ICMB remains very aware how important the hog industry is to Illinois. We are committed to advancing aggressive research and education programs to make DDGS as functional and valuable to the pork industry as it currently is to beef and dairy sectors of our industry,” Shauman said.

Forty-six percent of beef cow operations and 38 percent of cattle-on-feed operations used corn gluten feed purchased from feed
companies or co-ops, though many cattle-on-feed operations bought directly from ethanol and other corn processing plants, according to the study.

Supplemental feeding of DDGs to cattle can help produce more beef in grazing programs, a study conducted by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station revealed earlier in 2007.

The study, conducted in the summer of  2006, monitored heifers averaging 600 pounds that were fed three pounds (approx. 0.5 percent of the animal’s body weight) of DDGs per head per day, to those given no supplement.

Results showed heifers fed DDGs showed an improvement in weight by a quarter of a pound per head per day over the control animals, according to the website www.Grainnet.com

This farm news was published in the July 18, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.