Sanjeewa Ranathunga was recognized for his research at the recent annual meeting of the Midwest American Dairy Science Association meetings with the Young Dairy Scholars Award.

Ranathunga is in the final stages of his Ph.D. program in dairy cattle nutrition at South Dakota State University under the guidance of Dr. Kenneth Kalscheur, Associate Professor in Dairy Science. During his time at SDSU, Ranathunga has conducted valuable research looking at DDGS and their impact on dairy cattle diets.

Ranathunga began his Master’s program at SDSU in dairy cattle nutrition under Kalscheur after completing an M.S. in Biochemistry at Pukyong National University in Busan, South Korea.

His Master’s research demonstrated that the non-forage fiber provided from DDGS and soyhulls can effectively replace starch provided by corn in dairy cow diets without negatively affecting the performance of dairy cows.

This research revealed that DDGS can be used as an effective energy source to replace high priced corn, and can decrease the feed cost of the diet. According to income over feed cost analysis, an economic advantage if $1.42 per cow per day was observed in this study when feeding the 21 percent DDGS diet compared with 0 percent DDGS diet.

Read more from iGrow.org.

Today, National Corn Growers Association staff selflessly participated in just such an experiment for Director of Biofuels Pam Keck.  An accomplished baker, Keck decided to combine her interest in Distillers Dried Grains, an ethanol co-product popularly used in animal feed, with her culinary craftsmanship whipping up a batch of oatmeal cookies.  Splitting the ingredients into two distinct portions, Keck then added a fiber and protein packed punch to one set by mixing DDGs into the dough.

This morning, Keck placed her handiwork in a prime location- directly across from the office coffee service.  As coworkers sauntered in to prepare their caffeine fix, they caught site of the treat.  As anyone who has worked in a similar environment knows, home-baked goods never last long when craftily situated so close to the java.  So, the test began.

As DDGs are not yet widely used in foods produced for human consumption, Keck clearly labeled each batch, knowing that her peers clearly understood the safety and dietary benefits of her addition.  By mid-morning, the piles both dwindled rapidly and, while some voiced a preference for the traditional batch, many found that they preferred the new concoction.

Both varieties of the oatmeal and craisin cookies offered a moist, mildly sweet background punctuated by tart berry bursts, but the version containing DDGs also left a wholesome-tasting nutty flavor with a pleasant chewy texture.  Keck’s culinary acumen certainly played a large role in determining the quality of the cookies, but, without additional alteration to the recipe, the power-packed batch baked to a fantastic finish as well.

The real message of the taste test came across loud and clear to the corn-conscious crowd.  In an era of false food-versus-fuel debate and fever-pitched skirmishes over almost every aspect of nutrition, simple answers still await those willing to explore the possibilities.  An ethanol co-product that packs a nutritional punch into crave-worthy craisin cookies? It is time to wake up and open our eyes to the possibilities just waiting for us, sometimes right next to the coffee.

An episode of the Into the Outdoors series titled, “Big Things from Small Stuff” will be shown this weekend, January 21-22, on local channels in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.

Wisconsin Farmers Mark Schroeder and Bill Hoffman and Cambria-based Didion Milling are featured as the episode follows the life of a corn kernel from planting to harvest. Production of corn kernels into products is displayed in the balance of the episode, which features Didion Milling’s innovative fractionation process at its dry corn mill and the company’s line of HarvestGold Family of Corn Products. The episode also features Didion Ethanol and their co-product dried distillers grains.

Find out more here.

The major finding of the report is that a metric ton of DDGS can replace an average of 1.22 metric tons of corn and soybean meal feed. “We found that, on average, for the past 5 crop years (2006/07-2010/11), 1 mt of distillers’ grains substitutes for about 1.22 mt of corn and soybean meal combined in the United States,” concludes the Economic Research Service (ERS) report. That means that almost a full 40 percent of the corn used for ethanol goes directly back into the feed supply.

As of 2010/11, DDGS replaced soybean meal as the number two feedstuff fed, and is second only to corn. An increasing amount of soybean meal is being replaced over corn in livestock rations. The report also found that as DDGS market share for beef cattle have declined, market shares for dairy cattle, swine, and poultry have increased. Beef cattle’s DDGS substitution rate for corn is remains higher than any other type of livestock/poultry but is the lowest for soybean meal.

“This report reiterates what we have been saying for years: ethanol produces both fuel and food, in the form of high protein animal feed known as distillers grains,” said Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis, noting that distillers grains cost livestock producers about 25 percent less. “This valuable feed displaces a greater volume of field corn and soybeans, is less expensive to the producer and is much more nutritious for the animal.”

Geoff Cooper, Renewable Fuels Association Vice President of Research & Analysis, believes the report has important implications regarding ethanol’s impact on feed grains availability, feed prices, land use effects, and the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of producing corn ethanol.

“USDA’s new analysis clearly shows the importance of accurate DDGS accounting,” Cooper said. “The Environmental Protection Agency and CARB should immediately adopt these new findings into their GHG modeling for the RFS2 and LCFS. The resulting decrease in ethanol’s lifecycle GHG emissions could be significant.”

Earlier this year, RFA compared the production of DDGS to only the amount of corn used for feed. With estimated production of 39 million metric tons of distillers grains for feed in the current marketing year, that is the “equivalent to the 4th largest corn crop in the world, and is enough feed to produce 50 billion quarter-pound hamburgers – seven patties for each person on the planet – or enough to produce one chicken breast for every American every day for a year.” Accounting for soybean meal substitution, that makes even more!

What we call DDGS in general can also include a number of other individual ethanol co-product. There’s a whole alphabet soup of them – DDG, DWG, DDGS, DWGS, CDS, corn gluten feed (CGF), wet corn gluten feed (WCGF), and corn gluten meal (CGM). The report suggests that future industry surveys could be more precise if they estimated the effects of all the different ethanol coproducts on the U.S. feed complex.

This report includes some of the most specific and well-researched data on distillers grains production, consumption and the ratios by which it is being used in the different livestock and poultry markets. Read it here.

Despite the fact that corn stocks are reported to be 34% lower than a year ago, it was expected to be much worse, even just a few weeks prior to the Friday Grain Stocks report. Earlier this year, USDA was predicting corn stocks would finish the year at just 675 million bushels, less than a three-week supply. But as of September 1, stocks instead totaled 1.13 billion bushels, with summer disappearance indicated at 2.54 billion bushels, compared with 2.60 billion bushels during the same period last year.

The report left even USDA’s Chief Economist Joe Glauber scratching his head. “Obviously our analysts are going to be looking at those numbers, but it poses a puzzle in that regard,” said Glauber. Some think the numbers are just off, while others think it could be that livestock producers are using less corn for feed than expected.

That leads us to say don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, because having corn stocks higher is a good thing for everyone. “Pushing corn stocks back above one billion bushels is important for the psyche of the market,” said Renewable Fuels Association Vice President Geoff Cooper. “Having more corn available should somewhat ease supply concerns brought on by poor growing conditions this year and provide more of a buffer until farmers complete the harvest of this year’s crop.”

With corn prices higher this summer, livestock producers may have been using more distillers grains (DDGS), the by-product of ethanol production. When the amount of corn used for ethanol feed co-products is combined with feed and residual demand, total feed demand becomes 6.35 billion bushels, or 47 percent of expected use in 2011/12.

So, if we did look that gift horse – or cow or pig – in the mouth, we might just find more DDGS than corn there. Surprise!

In the case of U.S. Department of Agriculture figures on corn usage, government categories are obscuring reality and, in doing so, fueling food-versus-fuel panic based in incomplete information and, sometimes, intentionally obtuse interpretations. Now, the National Corn Growers Association wants to help the public understand what agricultural experts already know- corn used in ethanol production actually creates both feed and fuel.

In a recent interview, NCGA Vice President of Production and Utilization Paul Bertels got at the heart of the issue, and it is all about how USDA compiles the numbers. Noting that ethanol production has increased, he points out that, “basically one-third of what is being processed is coming right back into the livestock ration.”

Notably, this third is not reflected in corn usage data released by the agency. Instead, the total sum is attributed to ethanol with no accounting for the addition of high quality feed products that enter the livestock sector post-production.

“People get a little hysterical about the food vs. fuel,” said NCGA CEO Rick Tolman. “They believe that we are taking corn away from livestock producers.” That’s not the case, however. “The big difference is the pie is growing. Those pieces that have been going for feed and food are still there—they are not any smaller—it’s just that the pie got bigger.”

As in so many cases, the truth calms fears based in a lack of knowledge. Instead of perpetuating the pandemonium, realize that sensationalized stories sell magazines without regard for their impact upon the country. Buying into the mass hysteria only harms both farmers and the industry providing a domestic, renewable, sustainable fuel for the United States. Take a look at the broader picture instead of being blinded by skewed stats.

According to the report, “Fueling a Nation; Feeding the World,” ethanol producers are expected to turn out about 39 million metric tons of livestock feed in the form of distillers grains in the current marketing year. That amount is equivalent to the 4th largest corn crop in the world, and is enough feed to produce 50 billion quarter-pound hamburgers – seven patties for each person on the planet – or enough to produce one chicken breast for every American every day for a year.

This is a message that needs to be shouted from the rooftops because it helps to visualize the point that ethanol uses much less of the nation’s corn supply than simple statistics imply. Last year, ethanol production provided 35 million metric tons (mmt) of livestock feed – more than the total amount of grain consumed by all of the beef cattle in the nation’s feedlots!

In other words, we are producing both food and fuel from every bushel of corn that goes into an ethanol plant. Why don’t people get this?

Dr. Phillip Smith, a nutritionist with Tyson Foods, spoke at the recent Export Exchange event sponsored by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and the U.S. Grains Council about the value of DDGS in the poultry sector.

“It’s a very good ingredient for us,” said Dr. Smith. “We’ve used it successfully and the reason we would use a co-product like that is to save money in the diet. It gives us a good cost value, nutrient value, it flows and handles and the birds perform well on it.” He says it can be use as much as 15 percent of the diet for birds, or even more in breeder diets.

He recommended to international buyers who were at the Export Exchange that they try DDGS and work with it. “If it saves money, there’s that incentive, that risk is worth taking,” he said.

Listen to or download an interview with Dr. Phillip Smith here: Phillip Smith Interview

South Dakota State University Extension swine specialist Dr. Robert Thaler talked about the use of DDGS in hogs and how it helps supply phosphorus in the diet. “Phosphorus supplementation to the diet is very expensive,” he said. “The cool thing is that the phosphorus in DDGS is highly available. So, if you’re replacing dical or monocal with phosphorus coming from DDGS, you’re going to have less phosphorus in the manure, it will probably be cheaper and plus, you’re going to have less environmental problems.”

Dr. Thaler says exporters want quality assurances when it comes to DDGS and they are also wondering how high they can go including DDGS in the diet. “A lot of them are at 5-10 percent inclusion rate in swine diets. Here in the United States, on the growth/finish side, we’re probably 20-30,” he explained. “We just have to get them to realize that there’s nothing magical we’re doing to make that 20-30 percent work.”

Listen to Dr. Thaler’s interview here: Robert Thaler Interview

Our host was Bill Couser. Bill conducted a fascinating presentation about his marriage of row crop farming (corn/soybeans), livestock production and ethanol production! You can see a portion of his explanation in the video below. He used a long table to display all the products he produces starting with an ear of corn and winding up with ethanol (2.81 gal/bushel of corn) as well as by-products like DDGS and ultimately fine quality beef. I loved his description about the whole food vs. fuel debate, “It’s rubbish!”

TATT Global Farmer To Farmer Roundtable Photo Album

On hand is the President/CEO of the National Corn Growers Association, Rick Tolman. I asked Rick what he thought about the conference and its importance to the industry. Rick says it’s critically important and that the DDGS export market is one of the bright spots in the industry.

You can listen to the interview with Rick here: