The substitution method
How to convert feed prices per ton to per kg, per hundredweight and per unit of protein
Divide a USDA feed price per ton by 907.18 to get the price per kilogram, because USDA quotes feed per short ton of 2,000 pounds. Divide by 20 for per hundredweight, and put the price on a dry-matter basis before comparing feeds on protein or energy.
Updated Oct 15, 2026
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To turn a USDA feed price per ton into a price per kilogram, divide it by 907.18. USDA's feedstuffs reports quote every ingredient on this site in dollars per short ton of 2,000 pounds, and a short ton is 907.18 kilograms by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's conversion table. A feed quoted at $200 a ton costs about $0.22 a kilogram.
The unit ladder
- national median across 11 FOB plant regions
Every conversion starts from the per-ton price in the chart above, because that is how USDA publishes it. From a price per short ton:
- Per kilogram: divide by 907.18. $200 a ton is $0.22 a kilogram.
- Per metric ton (1,000 kg): multiply by 1.1023. $200 a short ton is $220 a metric ton. A metric ton is about 10 percent heavier than a short ton, so the same feed always reads higher per metric ton.
- Per hundredweight (100 pounds): divide by 20. $200 a ton is $10.00 per hundredweight.
- Per pound: divide by 2,000. $200 a ton is $0.10 a pound, which puts a 50-pound bag's share of the bulk price at $5.00. Feed bought bagged at retail carries bagging, freight and store margin on top of that.
- Per bushel, for the grain benchmarks: USDA quotes corn and soybeans per bushel, and Iowa State University Extension lists the standard bushel at 56 pounds for shelled corn and 60 pounds for soybeans. A ton is therefore 35.71 bushels of corn or 33.33 bushels of soybeans. The corn price per ton calculator converts a corn quote between bushels, tons, hundredweight and metric tons.
What the words in a quote fix
A converted price is only comparable with another when three things match on both sides.
As fed or dry matter. USDA prices feed as fed, water included. That barely matters for a dry meal near 90 percent dry matter and matters a great deal for a wet feed: USDA's wet distillers grains quote is for product at 65 to 70 percent moisture, so a ton of it holds only 0.30 to 0.35 tons of dry matter. Divide the as-fed price by the dry-matter fraction to get the price per ton of dry matter before setting a wet feed beside a dry one. WDGS vs DDGS works through that case.
FOB plant or delivered. An FOB plant price is the feed loaded at the mill with the haul still to pay; a delivered price includes freight to a named market. Converting units does not change which of the two you are holding. FOB plant vs delivered covers the difference, and the delivered feed-cost calculator adds your own freight and shrink.
The spec. USDA attaches a grade to many quotes: 60 percent protein for corn gluten meal, 46.5 to 48 percent for soybean meal, 41 percent for cottonseed meal. Two quotes at different specs are different products, so check the spec before the price. Reading a feedstuffs report goes through a quote word by word.
From price per ton to cost per unit of protein
A unit conversion keeps the feed the same and changes the measuring stick. Ranking one feed against another takes one more step: price the nutrient instead of the ton. Divide the dry-matter price by the pounds of protein in a ton of dry matter, which is 2,000 times the crude protein percent. The same math with TDN gives the cost of a pound of energy. For a per-kilogram figure, multiply the cost per pound by 2.2046.
With the round $200 a ton: a feed at 90 percent dry matter costs $222 per ton of dry matter, and at 29.5 percent crude protein on a dry-matter basis (the DDGS value this site uses) a ton of dry matter holds 590 pounds of protein. That is $222 divided by 590, or $0.377 per pound of crude protein, which is $0.83 per kilogram.
The board above runs that calculation on every feed on the latest USDA board, with nutrient values checked against extension and NRC feed tables (the methodology lists them). To run it on your own quote and lab analysis, use the feed cost-per-nutrient calculator.
Worked example: the latest DDGS price
DDGS is $193/ton as of Oct 12, 2026, the national median of its FOB plant quotes on the USDA board. In the other units that is $0.21 per kilogram, $213 per metric ton or $9.65 per hundredweight. On a dry-matter basis it is $215 per ton of dry matter, which works out to $0.364 per pound of crude protein.
DDGS prices carries the chart, every regional quote and the week-on-week move. The Ration reports these prices as USDA publishes them and does the conversions; it does not forecast where they go or say what to feed.
Try it
The math, step by step. Dry-matter price = price per ton ÷ (dry matter % ÷ 100). Cost per pound of crude protein = dry-matter price ÷ (2,000 lb × crude protein % ÷ 100). Cost per pound of TDN is the same with the TDN percent. Cost per Mcal of net energy = dry-matter price ÷ (2,000 lb × net energy in Mcal per pound). This is exactly the calculation the site's nutrient-cost screening board runs on the USDA board price; here you run it on your own quote and your own lab analysis. It prices a nutrient; it does not tell you what to feed.
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Now look at the live data
Common questions
How do you convert a feed price per ton to per kg?
Divide it by 907.18. USDA quotes feed per short ton of 2,000 pounds, which is 907.18 kilograms, so $200 a ton is about $0.22 a kilogram. For a price per metric ton instead, multiply the per-ton price by 1.1023.
Is the USDA feed price per short ton or per metric ton?
Per short ton of 2,000 pounds. A metric ton is 1,000 kilograms, about 2,204.6 pounds, so the same feed reads roughly 10 percent higher when it is quoted per metric ton.
How do you convert a price per ton to a price per hundredweight?
Divide by 20. A hundredweight is 100 pounds and a short ton is 2,000, so $200 a ton is $10.00 per hundredweight.
What is the DDGS price per kg?
Take the DDGS price per ton and divide it by 907.18. DDGS prices shows the latest USDA board price and answers the per-kilogram question with that week's number in its common questions.
How do you compare the price of a wet feed with a dry feed?
Put both on a dry-matter basis by dividing each as-fed price by its dry-matter fraction. A wet feed at 30 percent dry matter and $60 a ton costs $200 per ton of dry matter, the same as a dry feed at 90 percent dry matter and $180 a ton.