Cottonseed meal price

Cottonseed meal is a protein feed, fed to raise a ration's crude-protein content. On a dry-matter basis it runs about 45.6% crude protein and 72% TDN, roughly 0.76 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. Solvent, 41% grade. 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). Cottonseed meal is crushed from cottonseed after the fiber has gone to the gin, so it is a co-product of a fiber crop's economics, not a protein crop's: acreage decisions across the cotton belt are made for lint, and meal supply follows along. Its natural gossypol content is the fact every buyer needs to know, since it makes the meal unsuitable at real inclusion for swine, poultry and young calves, confining its market mostly to beef cattle and, in smaller amounts, dairy cows. Price tends to shadow soybean meal, the protein source it is measured against, usually at a discount for its lower lysine and the gossypol limit.

Priced off soybean meal, at a standing discount. USDA quotes cottonseed meal at a 41 percent protein spec, below soybean meal's 46.5 to 48 percent, and K-State Research and Extension finds it lower than soybean meal in crude protein, lysine and most essential amino acids. Lysine is the most limiting amino acid in most swine diets, so the gap is built into the product, not a bad week. The cottonseed meal vs soybean meal table on this page shows how wide that discount ran in the latest USDA week.

Gossypol decides who can buy it. K-State's swine specialists name gossypol, a compound in the seed's pigment glands, as the limit on cottonseed meal in pig diets, and eOrganic documents that in laying hens it cuts egg production and discolors yolks. Cattle get some protection: K-State's cottonseed monograph explains that the rumen binds and breaks down gossypol, giving mature animals a practical margin, though it warns against cottonseed products for calves too young to have a working rumen. That confines most of the meal to cattle rations.

Beef cows, dairies, feed mills and gardeners. K-State's review shows small amounts of the meal improving how lactating beef cows use low-quality hay, and it finds the meal's protein degradability similar to soybean meal's for dairy cows. Feed manufacturing takes another share: cottonseed hulls can be blended with about 35 percent meal into a product that ships and handles better than loose hulls. Outside feed, the National Cotton Council notes the meal sells as a natural fertilizer for lawns, flower beds and gardens, and University of Maryland Extension lists it as a 6-2-1 complete organic fertilizer.

The crush follows the gin. Cottonseed only comes into being when cotton is ginned, which EPA's ginning profile puts between October 1 and December 31 nationally. From the gin, the Cotton Council notes, seed travels to a crushing mill for delinting, hulling and oil extraction, and K-State ranks the meal second to oil in value among the crush's products. Meal supply therefore depends on how much seed crushers win at harvest against dairies buying it whole, and on the oil demand behind a crusher's bid. The feedstuffs menu guide sets the meal beside the other cottonseed products.

Cottonseed meal vs soybean meal. Cottonseed meal substitutes for soybean meal protein in mature ruminants but not freely: its free gossypol makes it risky for swine, poultry and young calves. Oklahoma State University Extension documents gossypol toxicosis from overfeeding. Its lysine is also lower than soybean meal's.