Whole cottonseed price

Whole cottonseed is a protein feed, fed to raise a ration's crude-protein content. On a dry-matter basis it runs about 23% crude protein and 94% TDN, roughly 1 Mcal of net energy for lactation per pound of dry matter, at about 92% 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. Fat+fiber+protein triple; the very high TDN is its added fat. 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). Whole cottonseed is sold straight off the gin without going to a crusher, making it one of the few feedstuffs offering protein, fat and fiber together, a combination dairies have long valued for milk fat production. It comes from the same cotton belt acreage as cottonseed meal and hulls, and competes directly against the crusher for that seed supply: when crush margins are strong, more seed is pulled toward oil and meal and less stays whole for direct feeding. Its fuzzy lint can bridge in augers and bins, a handling quirk feed mills design around, and its gossypol content caps how much a dairy cow can be fed each day.

The raw seed, straight off the gin. Whole cottonseed is the seed as the gin leaves it: the long lint is gone but the short linters, the hull and the oily kernel are all still there, which is why upland seed is called fuzzy cottonseed. EPA's ginning profile notes the seed goes one of two ways, processed into meal, linters and hulls, or fed directly to cattle. On this page cottonseed means that whole, gin-run seed; cottonseed meal and cottonseed hulls are pieces of it after a crushing mill takes it apart, each with its own price page. The feedstuffs menu guide lays out how the three differ.

Dairies buy three feeds in one. K-State Research and Extension traces whole cottonseed's place as a staple in dairy rations to its unusual mix of protein, energy and fiber, and notes dairy producers have taken it up as a source of all three in lactating cow diets. Alabama Cooperative Extension puts typical whole seed at 80 percent TDN and 24 percent crude protein.

Every ton has two bidders: the crusher and the dairy. K-State finds the price and availability of whole cottonseed depend on the size of the cotton crop, oil demand and competition for position during harvest. The crusher values a ton by what it yields: K-State puts that at about 16 percent crude oil and 8 percent linters, with hulls and meal making up almost three-fourths of the seed. The dairy values the same ton by the protein, energy and fiber it replaces in a ration. USDA's Economic Research Service documents two more outlets, seed exported whole and seed kept for planting, and the National Cotton Council notes only a small share of the crop is held back for planting, a separate market from feed.

The year's supply arrives in one window. EPA puts the U.S. ginning season between October 1 and December 31, with the bulk of each region's crop ginned in six to eight weeks and the gins idle the rest of the year. A dairy that feeds cottonseed all year buys against that window, from the gins and commodity feed suppliers that Alabama Extension finds carry it across cotton country.

Fuzzy and pima are different feeds. USDA quotes upland fuzzy seed and pima seed separately. K-State notes pima seed usually carries more gossypol than upland seed and has few linter fibers attached, so it is generally ground for feeding, which exposes its gossypol glands in the rumen faster than whole fuzzy seed does. Alabama Extension also finds pima generally higher in free gossypol. The whole cottonseed vs soybean meal table on this page compares either one against the protein benchmark, a partial comparison at best, since the seed's price also buys the fat and fiber soybean meal lacks.

Whole cottonseed vs soybean meal. Whole cottonseed brings protein, fat and fiber together, which is why dairies value it, but its gossypol and fat cap intake. Alabama Cooperative Extension puts a common rate near 5 to 8 pounds a cow a day for mature cattle, and it is unsuitable for swine, poultry and young calves.