Wheat millrun price

Wheat millrun is an energy feed, fed for its digestible energy. On a dry-matter basis it runs about 17% crude protein and 75% TDN, roughly 0.79 Mcal of net energy for lactation per pound of dry matter, at about 90% dry matter as fed. Those figures come from Colorado State University Extension, Feed Composition for Cattle and Sheep (Fact Sheet 1.615). Coarser than middlings; NEl borrowed cross-grade from middlings (no millrun-specific NRC NEl). 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). Wheat millrun is flour milling's other bran-and-shorts co-product, coarser and less closely screened than middlings but drawn from the same milling stream at the same flour mills. The two run close enough in nutrient value that buyers often treat them as substitutes, though millrun's coarser texture can affect how it flows and mixes in a feed mill. Supply follows flour milling volume the same way middlings does, so the two co-products move together more than either moves on its own. Dairy, swine and poultry formulators buy whichever is available and better priced regionally.

Two feed names, one word apart. The AAFCO feed definitions that K-State Research and Extension reprints describe wheat mill run as coarse and fine particles of bran, plus shorts, germ, flour and the offal from the tail of the mill, and wheat middlings as nearly the same list with only the fine bran particles. Both carry the same crude fiber ceiling. K-State found the livestock and milling industries use the two names interchangeably, even though its figures showed middlings can run higher in protein and energy while mill run carries more phosphorus, potassium and magnesium. What are wheat middlings? covers the finer product, and the wheat middlings page carries its price.

The flour grind sets the tonnage. USDA's Economic Research Service describes bran, shorts and middlings as wheat milling co-products used to produce animal feeds, and K-State notes their availability is limited largely by the seasonal level of flour production and demand. A mill cannot grind more wheat because mill run is bid up, and it cannot stop making mill run when the bid falls. A University of Hawaii extension study shows the far end of that: a Honolulu flour mill whose local dairy herd had shrunk found shipping its dusty millings to the mainland too costly and paid a fee to send millings to a composter instead. Freight, not feed value, decided where those tons could go.

Western mills grind a different wheat. ERS lists Washington, Oregon and Idaho among the states growing white wheat, and a study K-State reviews found millfeed makeup shifts with the class of wheat milled: Pacific white and soft red winter wheat gave a lower bran-to-shorts ratio than the hard red wheats. A West Coast mill run and a Plains mill run can carry the same name and a different balance of bran and shorts.

Priced off corn and soybean meal, phosphorus included. K-State, which groups mill run with middlings in its analysis, values these feeds per ton on protein, energy and phosphorus at going corn and soybean meal prices. It documents prices commonly slipping against that feed value in spring and early summer, then strengthening through fall and winter, and NDSU Extension likewise notes the price of wheat midds varies seasonally with demand for feed products. K-State also found pelleting more than doubles bulk density, which widens the radius a mill can sell into.