Biofuel co-products as livestock feed - Opportunities and challenges

40Biofuel co-products as livestock feed – Opportunities and challengesFIGURE 3Historical production of ethanol co-productsU.S. ETHANOL CO - PRODUCTS OUTPUT40 00035 000Thousand Metric Tons30 00025 00020 00015 00010 0005 0000Distillers Grains Corn Gluten Feed Corn Gluten MealSource: RFA, 2011.swine and poultry diets. These terms were used and adoptedwidely throughout the ethanol as well as the domesticand international feed industry because there were noofficial feed industry or government grading systems to differentiatequality and feeding value among DDGS sources.It was common for “golden” DDGS to trade at a premiumprice compared with “old generation” DDGS. Surprisingly,these terms are still used today among DDGS users incountries around the world. This was the beginning of theethanol industry referring to DDGS as a co-product ratherthan a by-product.2000 to presentThe period from 2000 to 2008 was an exciting time in theethanol and feed industries, and DG production increaseddramatically (Figure 3). This era was defined by the questionof “What are we going to do with the ‘mountains’ ofDDGS produced by the exponential growth of the ethanolindustry?”This concern, accompanied by the increased volumeof DG being produced, prompted several state maizegrower associations, as well as livestock and feed industryorganizations to provide a dramatic increase to severaluniversities of funding for animal nutrition research onfeeding applications of DG co-products. Like the exponentialgrowth of the ethanol industry, there was a dramaticincrease in research conducted at universities and feedindustry companies to more completely define the benefitsand limitations of using DG in livestock, poultry and aquaculturediets. Leading DG researchers in dairy (Schingoetheet al., 2009), beef (Klopfenstein, Erickson and Bremer,2008) and swine (Stein and Shurson, 2009) publishedsummaries of results from numerous research studiesconducted during this period. Their research, and the publicationof these summaries, made a tremendous impact,with widespread feed and livestock industry acceptanceof these maize co-products. Several key research studieswere also conducted and results were published for poultry(Lumpkins, Batal and Dale, 2004, 2005; Lumpkins andBatal, 2005; Batal and Dale, 2003, 2006). Likewise, theseinitial studies were instrumental in expanding the use ofDDGS in poultry feeds around the world. Because of theextensive amount of research conducted during this decade,maximum recommended dietary inclusion rates wereestablished for using DG with solubles in animal feeds.Maximum inclusion rates established are: lactating dairycows – 30 percent; beef feedlot cattle – 40 percent; swine– 30 percent all phases, and up to 50 percent in gestation;and poultry – 5 percent.In addition to new knowledge generated from extensiveresearch, widespread media attention on the growing ethanolindustry and the development of university and industryWeb sites (e.g. www.ddgs.umn.edu) devoted to communicatingresearch results and feeding recommendations,were instrumental in communicating knowledge to DDGSend users around the globe. Interest in using DDGS in newmarket segments grew dramatically because there was apositive story to tell. Research results showed the excellentfeeding value of DDGS for all species, including swine andpoultry, and for the first time in history, a significant marketfor DDGS in the United States swine and poultry industrywas created (Figure 4).