Corn gluten feed price

Corn gluten feed is a protein feed, fed to raise a ration's crude-protein content. On a dry-matter basis it runs about 23.8% crude protein and 78% TDN, roughly 0.84 Mcal of net energy for lactation per pound of dry matter, at about 90% dry matter as fed. Those figures come from University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension, Composition of Selected Livestock Feeds (FSA3043), from NRC Beef Cattle 1996 + Dairy One. TDN ranges 73-82% DM by source/plant. The leaderboard uses them to convert each USDA report week's board price into a cost per pound of protein and per pound of energy, so it can be ranked against corn and soybean meal. Prices are quoted per ton, and the cheapest board price is not the cheapest fed price once freight and moisture are counted (see the FOB-vs-delivered guide). Corn gluten feed is the bran and steep-liquor fraction left when a wet-milling plant pulls starch and sweeteners out of corn, a different process from the dry-grind ethanol plants that make DDGS. Wet mills are fewer and larger than ethanol plants and cluster around a handful of Midwest milling hubs, so supply tracks corn sweetener demand rather than the ethanol market. It carries its energy as digestible fiber rather than starch, letting feedlots run more of it without the acidosis risk of extra corn, though its phosphorus and sulfur still need watching at high inclusion. Cattle feeders and dairies are the main buyers, usually pricing it against corn and DDGS.

Its recipe is whatever the mill could not sell for more. K-State Research and Extension explains that corn gluten feed's makeup varies with the market values of the streams blended into it: a miller will pull out any part of the kernel worth more on its own than as part of the feed, and some plants add corn germ meal to the mix. The product is a residual, so its volume follows the plant's grind for starch and syrups, and a strong gluten feed price does not produce an extra ton.

Not the same product as corn gluten meal. The names invite confusion, but the two leave the mill by different doors. The U.S. Grains Council puts gluten feed at roughly 20 percent crude protein against about 60 for corn gluten meal, and NDSU Extension notes the meal is high in bypass protein while most of the feed's protein breaks down in the rumen. They sell to different buyers at very different prices.

Cattle price it against corn; pigs see less in it. For dairy cows, K-State finds gluten feed's energy similar to corn's with three times the crude protein. Swine see it differently: K-State's swine specialists note its very low starch and high fiber give it lower energy than corn for pigs. So its buyers are feedlots, dairies and cattle growers weighing it against the corn it displaces, plus the overseas ruminant and dairy feeders the Grains Council courts for export. The corn gluten feed guide covers the feeding side.

Wet feed stays close to home, and summer shortens its life. K-State notes wet gluten feed is the better feed, but the dry form wins as distance from the mill grows, because freight on a dry-matter basis costs less. Most of USDA's weekly quotes are for 21 percent protein pellets, with the wet product quoted on its own. The wet product also runs on a seasonal clock: NDSU found unprotected piles in a Fargo winter kept three to four weeks with little spoilage, while summer heat cut freshness to three or four days. A feedlot or dairy buying wet feed in July has to use it faster than one buying in January.