Distillers dried grains (DDGS) price

Distillers dried grains (DDGS) are a protein feed, fed to raise a ration's crude-protein content. On a dry-matter basis they run about 29.5% crude protein and 88% TDN, roughly 0.93 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. 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). DDGS is what remains of a corn kernel after a dry-grind ethanol plant ferments off the starch, leaving the protein, fiber, oil and yeast to be dried and sold as feed. Plants are spread across the Corn Belt in a way wet mills are not, which is why DDGS prices regionally rather than off one national quote. Export demand, especially into Asia, competes with domestic dairy, beef and hog rations for the same tons, and sulfur content is the standing constraint on how much a feedlot can safely include. Most plants now pull corn oil out before drying, trimming the fat and energy DDGS carries against the full-fat product of two decades ago.

A third of every bushel comes back as feed. USDA's Economic Research Service puts DDGS at roughly 31 percent of each bushel of corn a dry-mill ethanol plant grinds, so the feed's volume is a fixed share of the ethanol run, not a decision of its own. Plants run to an ethanol margin, which Iowa State University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development calculates as ethanol and DDGS revenue less the cost of corn, natural gas and other variable inputs. DDGS is one line in that ledger, an important source of supplementary income in ERS's words. A weak DDGS bid trims the margin, but the tons keep coming as long as ethanol pays, the mechanism our guide to the DDGS market follows from run rates to price.

Priced as part corn, part soybean meal. The U.S. Grains Council describes DDGS as both an energy and a protein supplement, and buyers value it on both counts. A Purdue University analysis published on farmdoc daily notes that because DDGS carries more protein than corn, it can stand in for both corn and soybean meal in livestock diets, and found its price highly correlated with each, more tightly with corn. The DDGS vs corn table on this page shows the energy side of that comparison.

Cattle at home, a wider mix abroad. ERS notes DDGS goes mainly to dairy and beef rations in the United States, because cattle use it more readily than hogs and poultry do. ERS found exports expanded fastest into livestock-producing countries where corn and soybean meal were relatively expensive (ERS), and the Grains Council's market work in Southeast Asia pitches the feed to swine, aquaculture and poultry feed makers on a low cost per unit of protein. That demand answers to rules as well as price: ERS traced a drop in shipments to China to higher U.S. prices and a Chinese antidumping investigation, and lists importing-country policy beside corn prices and substitute feeds as what sets foreign demand.

The oil is sold before the dryer. Plants began spinning corn oil out of thin stillage because, the Grains Council's DDGS handbook explains, the equipment was relatively low-cost to install and run and paid back quickly by adding another product to sell. The Renewable Fuels Association lists renewable diesel, biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel makers, along with poultry feed, as outlets for distillers corn oil. The feed buyer pays for that choice in energy: University of Nebraska-Lincoln beef researchers put full-fat DDGS at 113.4 percent of corn's feeding value for finishing cattle, against 103.4 percent for de-oiled DDGS. Two loads under the same name can carry different value, so the fat line on a spec sheet matters.

DDGS vs soybean meal. As a protein source DDGS is not a straight swap for soybean meal. Its crude protein is lower, less lysine-rich, and heat during drying can bind some of it, so DDGS replaces only part of soybean meal's protein even when it looks cheaper per pound. University of Minnesota Extension covers its use and limits in cattle diets.

DDGS vs canola meal. DDGS and canola meal are both mid-protein feeds but differ in profile: DDGS is higher in energy and in sulfur, canola lower in both with a favorable amino-acid balance for some diets. University of Minnesota Extension on DDGS and Feedipedia frame their limits; neither is a full soybean-meal replacement on protein quality alone.