Aug 27, 2007 - 04:05:02 CDT
North Dakota's booming ethanol industry is providing feed that cattle find tasty and ranchers find affordable - so far."The byproduct was a pretty good buy last year, but I'm not sure where they're going to price it this year," said Shawn Arndorfer, who owns a cattle feedlot near Hettinger and manages a second one near Scranton. "There's enough demand for the byproduct that I think it will probably push prices up a little bit."
The byproduct of corn ethanol production - called distillers grains - can replace some of the grain corn and protein supplements in a cow's diet. "Typically it's cheaper than the same amount of corn (and) soybean meal, whatever protein source you're using," said Greg Lardy, a beef cattle specialist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service.
"In Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa, where they've got huge amounts of byproduct being produced, (cattle) numbers are really going up," he said.
Duane Zent, who farms in the Richardton area, said he has had good luck with distillers grains from the Red Trail Energy plant, which produces ethanol in southwestern North Dakota.
"It's cheaper than buying corn, (and) cows really like it," he said.
Whether cattle numbers will increase in North Dakota as a result remains to be seen.
With four ethanol plants on line in North Dakota and at least three more being built, the Extension Service and North Dakota Agricultural Statistics Service plan a survey this winter to find out how many cattle on feed are in the state. The last survey was done in 2005, before ethanol plants at Richardton and Underwood began operating, Lardy said.
"The sense we got just talking to the ethanol plants is there's a lot of interest in the feed products coming out of Richardton and Underwood," he said.
Keith Finney, the commodities manager for Red Trail Energy LLC, said the Richardton plant is producing about 170,000 tons of distillers grains annually. About half is being sold locally, while the rest is shipped to the West Coast and Canada.
"It's a huge demand, and the demand is growing as people learn how to use it," Finney said. "We'll have more demand than we have supply once everyone learns how to use it."
Garry Ottmar, a livestock research specialist at the Dickinson Research Extension Center, said officials there are seeking grant money to research distillers grains and sugar beet pulp, a byproduct of a sugar processing plant in Montana.
"It's going to get pretty costly to feed some of the cattle (in the region) if that corn price keeps going up," Ottmar said, referring to high corn prices caused by the demand from the ethanol industry. "(Ranchers) are looking for alternatives, and calling us and wondering about these byproducts. They're looking for how much can they feed, what's the cost per day, is it worth messing with or not."
Lardy said that, 1½ years from now, "We'll have almost 10 times the (ethanol) capacity that we had two years ago" in North Dakota along with an equal increase in distillers grains. He expects more feedlots and individual ranchers to use the byproduct if it remains economical.
"It's not going to be a total replacement for corn, but it is a major benefit from ethanol production, having access to that byproduct," he said.
to J2 wrote on Sep 8, 2007 8:34 AM:
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Where is this by-product wrote on Aug 28, 2007 10:10 AM:
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