Biofuel co-products as livestock feed - Opportunities and challenges

54Biofuel co-products as livestock feed – Opportunities and challengesan animal feed ingredient. This could potentially change themarketing strategy and profit margins of an ethanol plant,where higher value and increased margins from distillersco-products would allow an ethanol plant to sell ethanol ata lower price and still remain profitable. Demonstrating thatmaize-based distiller’s co-products have functional food orneutraceutical properties will also result in job creation inthe food sector, because companies will explore new andinnovative uses for these co-products in human food andnutraceutical products. Using sound, scientific research toshow human health benefits from maize-based distillers coproductswill increase demand and establish a potentiallylarge, new market for these co-products.KNOWLEDGE GAPS AND FUTURE RESEARCHNEEDSAlthough much is known about the nutritional value,feeding applications, and benefits and limitations of maizedistillers co-products, research is needed to obtain newknowledge in several important areas to further increasedemand and expand the market for these ingredients.• Continue to develop and refine prediction equations andvarious “nutritional tools” to provide practical, inexpensiveand rapid estimates of nutrient content and digestibility,as well as relative value among identity-preservedDDGS sources.• Explore nutritional strategies to overcome limitationsaffecting maximum dietary inclusion rates for livestockand poultry.• Determine nutrient content, digestibility and feedingapplications of new and emerging maize co-products.• Determine the effects of feeding maize co-products onanimal health and feed safety.• Determine the need for antioxidants to preserve shelf lifeof DDGS under hot, humid conditions and in long-termstorage, as well as in animal feeds.• Evaluate feeding applications in aquaculture, pet foods,horses and rabbits.• Determine nutraceutical properties of distillers co-productsand their potential benefits to human health anduse in human foods.CONCLUSIONSAlthough 140 biodiesel plants produced 1.19 billion litresof biodiesel in 2010, very little crude glycerin has been usedin animal feeds in the United States due to the relativelylow volume produced compared with ethanol industryco-products, and its higher value for consumer productsand industrial manufacturing. DG co-products have a longhistory of being fed to food producing animals, but onlyrecently, have they revolutionized animal diets around theworld. Most of these changes have been a result of anabundant and growing supply of co-products, increasednutritional knowledge of how to optimize their use andvalue, and competitive prices relative to competing ingredients.Further opportunities exist to expand their use incurrent and other, as yet undeveloped, markets, but productionprocessing and other nutritional technologies mustbe developed through additional research and education toovercome their real or perceived limitations. As the UnitedStates ethanol industry continues to evolve, there will benew niches and feeding applications developed for the newco-products produced.BIBLIOGRAPHYAbdelqader, M., Hippen, A.R., Schingoethe, D.J., Kalscheur,K.F., Karges, K. & Gibson, M.L. 2006. Corn germ fromethanol production as an energy supplement for lactatingdairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science, 89(Suppl. 1): 156.Abe, C., Nagle, N.J., Parsons, C., Brannon, J. & Noll, S.L.2004. High protein corn distiller grains as a feed ingredient.Journal of Animal Science, 82(Suppl. 1): 264.AFIA [American Feed Industry Association]. 2007.Evaluation of Analytical Methods for Analysis of Dried DGwith Solubles. AFIA Sub-Working Group Final Report andRecommendations. AFIA, Arlington, VA, USA. 20 p.Allen, S.E., Fahey Jr., G.C., Corbin, J.E., Pugh, J.L. &Franklin R.A. 1981. Evaluation of byproduct feedstuffsas dietary ingredients for dogs. Journal of Animal Science,53: 1538–1544.Anderson, P.V., Shurson, G.C. & Kerr. B.J. 2009. Energydetermination of corn co-products fed to finishing pigs anduse of in vitro OM digestibility to predict in vivo ME. Journalof Animal Science, 87(E-Suppl. 3): 69.Ardüser, F., Wolffram, S. & Scharrer, E. 1985. Activeabsorption of selenate by rat ileum. Journal of Nutrition,115(9): 1203–1208.Asghar, A., Gray, J.I., Booren, A.M., Gomaa, E.A.,Abouzied, M.M., Miller, E.R. & Buckley, D.J. 1991.Effects of supranutritional dietary vitamin E levels onsubcellular deposition of -tocopherol in the muscle and onpork quality. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture,57(1): 31–41.Balan, V., Rogers, C.A., Chundawat, S.P.S., Sousa, L. da C.,Slininger, P.J., Gupta, R. & Dale, B.E. 2009. Conversion ofextracted oil cake fibers into bio-ethanol including DDGS,canola, sunflower, sesame, soy, and peanut for integratedbiodiesel processing. Journal of the American Oil ChemistsSociety, 86(2): 157–165.Batal, A. 2007. Nutrient digestibility of high protein corndistillers dried grains with solubles, dehydrated corn germ andbran. 2007 ADSA/ASAS/AMPA/PSA Joint Annual Meeting,San Antonio, TX, USA. 8–12 July 2007. Abstract M206.Batal, A. & Dale, N. 2003. Mineral composition of distillersdried grains with solubles. Journal of Applied PoultryResearch, 12(4): 400–403.