Biofuel co-products as livestock feed - Opportunities and challenges

450Biofuel co-products as livestock feed – Opportunities and challengesmaking it more accessible to livestock industries and moremarketable. DDGS can be used in diets without affectingproduction or reducing the quality of animal products –meat, milk, eggs, etc. – at rates of up to 20–40 percent forcattle; 10–25 percent for pigs; 9–15 percent for poultry and15–22.5 percent for fish (Braid, 2007). DDGS is particularlyuseful for ruminants, providing a combination of rumenby-pass protein, digestible fibre and energy.The information below is culled principally from ABARE(2010a).In Australia, the Dalby Biorefinery produces ethanolfrom grain sorghum and, unlike many grain ethanol plants,does not produce DDGS, whereby thin stillage is condensedto form condensed distillers solubles (CDS) then added backto the wet distillers grain prior to drying. Instead, DalbyBiorefinery relies on the separate sale of wet distillers grain(WDG) and CDS for disposal of its ethanol co-products.At full capacity, the Dalby plant produces 134 000 t/yr ofWDG with a moisture content of 65 percent, equivalent tosome 47 000 t of dried distillers grain. All of the WDG fromthe Dalby plant is sold direct to a beef feedlot in southernQueensland. The CDS, high in protein, fats, minerals anddigestible fibre, is sold on to a livestock feed processor to bemixed with cane sugar molasses to form a highly nutritiousfeed supplement for horses and ruminants.The Manildra Group at Nowra, NSW, uses a waste-starchstream from their flour-to-gluten plant, together with somelow-grade wheat and grain sorghum, to produce ethanoland DDGS. At full capacity, the Manildra Group’s currentplant can produce 175 000 t/yr of DDGS. Some goes to beeffeedlots, but the primary market is the NSW south coastdairy industry, which uses the DDGS either as inclusion inthe grain supplement fed during milking or as a droughtsupplement (Mark Honey, ‘Riversdale’, pers. comm.).Potentially, the current total annual amount of WDGand DDGS from ethanol production in Australia is equivalentto 225 000 t of dried distillers grain. To put this intoperspective, this represents just 4.8 percent of the estimated4 642 000 t of grain used annually in Australia forbeef cattle in feedlots and for dairy cows (Hafi and Connell,2003). It is difficult to accurately estimate the effect onavailability and price of cereal grain for livestock use inAustralia due to the current diversion of grain to ethanolproduction. Almost half of Australia’s ethanol productioncomes from the Manildra Group’s use of waste starch fromfood processing, i.e. from grain external to the livestockfeed market. In addition, with approximately 60 percent ofAustralia’s grain production going to export, internationalgrain prices are a major influence in setting local prices.There has been some concern from livestock producersthat the diversion of cane sugar molasses to the productionof ethanol would affect the availability and price ofmolasses, which is used as an energy supplement and carrierfor minerals such as phosphorous for grazing livestock,particularly in northern Australia. On average, Australiaproduces 1 025 000 t of molasses annually (Anon., 1996–2007; ASMC, 1996–2007). At full capacity, CSR Distillers inQueensland would use approximately 225 000 t, or 22 percentof annual production, to produce 60×10 6 L ethanolper year. This increase in demand may affect availabilityand price, particularly in drought years. However, in part,the diversion of this molasses to the production of biofuelis offset by the addition of the 38 000 t/year of CDS fromthe Dalby Biorefinery into the molasses market for livestockenergy supplementation.Biodiesel co-productsThere are two co-products from the production of biodieselthat can be used as feed for livestock: oilseed meal followingthe extraction of the bio-oil from the oilseed prior to itsconversion to biodiesel, and crude glycerol, a co-product ofthe trans esterification process. The majority of the biodieselproducers listed in Table 2 rely on a combination of tallowand used cooking oils as the feedstock for their plants andconsequently do not produce an oilseed meal co-product.Canola, a cultivar of rapeseed (Brassica napus), a commonEuropean feedstock for the production of biodiesel, isgrown in Australia, which in 2009 produced 1 920 000 tof canola oilseed (ABARE, 2010b), of which 65 percentwas exported as whole oilseed and the balance crushed inAustralia for the production of canola oil for human use.The canola meal derived from this production of canola oilis used in the intensive livestock industries: poultry, pigs anddairy cows. Canola meal is not a co-product of Australia’sbiofuels industry as canola is not used for the production ofbiofuels in Australia.However, there is a Brassica sp. that is increasinglybeing used in biodiesel production, Brassica juncea. As anon-food feedstock, this is described in the section on newproduction systems.National Biodiesel Pty Ltd at Port Kembla, NSW, are in theprocess of developing a new facility for the production of soybiodiesel that will have a significant impact on the availabilityof Australian-produced biofuel co-products once it reachesits stated capacity. Based on projections, it will delivermore than 800 000 t of soybean meal per annum, initiallyfrom imported soybean. In 2009–10, Australia imported512 000 t of soybean meal to meet the feedstock demand ofthe pig and poultry industries as the total Australian productionof soybean was only 59 600 t. As this facility is not inproduction it has not been included in Table 2.GlycerolGlycerol occurs naturally in animal and vegetable fatswhere it is about 10 percent of the lipids. Crude glycerolis a co-product of the production of biodiesel and must