Sunflower Meal Leads Protein Board at 75% of Soybean Meal

Sunflower meal is the cheapest protein on the USDA feedstuffs board this week at $0.240 per pound of crude protein on a dry-matter basis, 75 percent of soybean meal's cost per pound of CP. Feather meal follows at $0.255 per pound of CP, 79 percent of the soybean meal benchmark. Meat and bone meal rounds out the top three at $0.289 per pound of CP, 90 percent of soybean meal.

• Hominy feed leads energy at $0.076 per pound of TDN (80 percent of corn's benchmark cost per pound), per USDA. Soybean hulls follow at $0.090 per pound of TDN, 96 percent of corn.
• DDGS is at approximately $170 per ton. On a dry-matter, cost-per-nutrient basis, DDGS runs energy at 114 percent of corn's cost per pound of TDN and protein at 100 percent of soybean meal's cost per pound of CP. It sits at or above both benchmarks this week.
• Rendering fats are running well above historical levels. Yellow grease in California (Central Coast) is at $62 per ton FOB plant, 86 percent above its 5-year median, per USDA. Choice white grease in Minnesota is at $82 per ton FOB plant, 60 percent above the 5-year median. Fats are priced but not scored on the nutrient leaderboard.
• Almond hulls in California (Sacramento Valley) are reported at $70 per ton FOB plant, 51 percent below the 5-year median, and South California at $95 per ton FOB plant, 44 percent below the 5-year median, per USDA. All three California almond hull series are in the stale set; treat those figures with caution.

Benchmarks: USDA reports corn (US #2 yellow) at $4.08 per bushel (approximately $146 per ton as-fed, delivered ethanol plant), 9 percent below its 5-year median. Soybean meal is at approximately $306 per ton FOB, with soybeans (US #1) at $11.43 per bushel, 3 percent below the 5-year median.

Data note: 40 USDA feedstuffs series have not updated in over two weeks, including alfalfa pellets, almond hulls and barley. Treat figures from those series as indicative only.