Ethanol Blog

With more and more hits to the cattle-feeding industry, producers need to do all they can to cope with high feed prices, according to an article by Agriculture.com (http://bit.ly/…).

Utilizing dried distillers grains in rations can help cut feed costs, although producers need to prevent storage and/or shrink losses.

Some Iowa feeders mentioned that using DDG or corn gluten can help reduce feed costs by cutting the amount of corn that must be fed. Even if the price of DDG is not at a discount compared to corn, there is still savings on feed costs since coproducts have a high protein value and can cut the need for protein supplements.

Typically, DDG has about 25% protein, while corn has about 9%.

According to Dan Loy, beef nutrition specialist at Iowa State University, producers may want to consider methods of curbing losses from feed shrink and waste, Loy said. Storing ethanol co-products such as dried distillers grains stored outside in uncovered piles can result in losses of 15% to 30% before being fed.

Loy said that commodity feed storage sheds can help. He estimated between $10,000 and $12,000 for a 750-head feedlot could pay for itself in as little as one year, even if only curbing losses by just 5%.

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

(ES)

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