Ethanol Blog

Survey Measures Impact of Corn Quality

Cheryl Anderson
By  Cheryl Anderson , DTN Staff Reporter

Ethanol Producer Magazine recently tracked corn quality's impact by sending a survey out to management at 109 ethanol plants, according to an article by Ethanol Producer Magazine (http://bit.ly/…).

Responses from plants in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin revealed that states such as Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin were affected by cold weather toward the end of the growing season, with great variances in test weights and yields from less than 54 pounds per bushel to 57 or more.

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The survey may be helpful of plants to gauge how its corn supply compares to others in the industry, according to Charles Hurburgh, Iowa State University extension corn quality expert. The information gained may be especially important in marketing distillers grains, since issues with the incoming corn are concentrated three times in the resulting coproduct.

The survey also provided other insights, such as the high number of plants that measure every incoming load of corn for weight, moisture damage and foreign material. The majority of respondents also generally test corn for starch content, while much fewer respondents said they test for protein or oil, or aflatoxin and vomitoxin. Only one plant reported that loads are checked for fiber, one for density, and another for ash, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and sulfur.

Measuring corn quality will likely become more important in the future, Hurburgh said. "For example, with front or back end fractionation, all of a sudden the oil content has a great deal to do with how difficult or easy it's going to be to get a good yield of oil per bushel," he said, according to the magazine.

Cheryl Anderson can be reached at Cheryl.anderson@dtn.com

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Pam Swoner
2/17/2015 | 11:50 PM CST
I would like to know which plant checks for fiber, ash, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and sulfur.