Reading a feedstuffs report

A USDA feedstuffs report is a weekly price sheet for the feeds that are not whole grains, collected and published by the Agricultural Marketing Service. It is where the numbers on this site come from, so this guide doubles as the methodology. Four reports together cover the ground: the processor feedstuffs, the mill feeds, the animal proteins and the grain co-products.

The four reports

Each report handles one family of feeds. The National Grain and Oilseed Processor Feedstuff report carries the big ones, DDGS and the corn gluten feeds, soybean and cottonseed meal, the oilseed meals and hulls. The National Mill-Feeds and Miscellaneous Feedstuff report covers wheat middlings and millrun, rice bran, alfalfa products and the like. A third report prices the animal proteins, the rendered meat and bone, feather and blood meals and the feed greases. The National Grain Co-Products report carries the ethanol stream, wet distillers grains and the corn benchmark itself. This site reads all four.

How the prices are collected

These are confirmed prices, not asking prices. USDA market reporters survey the plants, processors and merchants who actually buy and sell these feeds and publish what real lots traded for, the same way the agency reports every other commodity. A number no one traded at does not reach the report. That is what makes a USDA feed price a market fact a buyer can hold a contract to.

Reading a line

Every line names the feedstuff, the trade region, the price and the basis. The price comes as a low and a high with an average, because feed trades in a range in a given week rather than at one number, and the report keeps that range instead of flattening it. The basis says FOB plant or delivered, which as the freight guide explains changes what the feed actually costs at the farm. Region matters too: the same feed prices differently in the Corn Belt than on the coasts. The reports run weekly, generally mid-week, and a federal holiday can push a release back a day, so a number that looks a few days stale is often just the calendar.

Worked example

The board above is built from those four reports. Each feed's price is pulled from its report, converted to a common dollars-per-ton dry-matter basis, and turned into a cost per pound of protein and energy so feeds priced in different reports can be ranked together. The methodology page lists every source report and every nutrient coefficient. Start with the report line, end with the ranked board.

The Ration reads the public USDA feedstuffs reports and does the cost-per-nutrient math on them. It reports the prices as published, per ton and as ranges where USDA gives a range, and does not forecast them.