News
Co-product feedstuffs are changing
New technological advances in the ethanol-making process have resulted in compositional differences in co-product feedstuffs, such as distillers grains with solubles.
Dan Loy, director of the Iowa Beef Center at Iowa State University, says there is more variability in those products.
“There’s variability in moisture content and there’s variability in oil content,” says Loy, “and those can affect the feeding value.”
And Loy says more changes are on the horizon, as more plants incorporate technology to extract corn fiber from the products.
“We do have some preliminary data—some early research—with one plant that is initiating that process,” he says, “and it indicates that even with that process, there’s still significant value in those feeds.”
The Iowa Beef Center has developed a series of six new fact sheets on changes in co-products and the subsequent effects on the nutritional and economic value for beef cattle. They are available free of charge through the Iowa State Extension Online Store.
AUDIO: Dan Loy
That’s why we need to go back to calling them “by-products” instead of “co-products”, and valuing them accordingly. If ethanol plants really wanted to provide us with a consistent feed product, they could earn “co-product” pricing.