Why prices are moving
Near normalWhy are DDGS prices rising right now?
$169/ton national median as of Aug 17, 2026. Broadly flat for 3 weeks.
Data through Aug 17, 2026 · source last checked Aug 27, 2026 · page revised Aug 27, 2026
Cite
- National median
About this data
- Source
- USDA AMS feedstuffs board
- Series
- DDGS (distillers dried grains) national cross-region median price
- Basis
- FOB plant preferred, as-fed $/ton
- Geography
- National
- Unit
- $/ton
- Calculation
- Weekly cross-region median
- Last observation
- Aug 17, 2026
- Update frequency
- Weekly
The DDGS national median has been broadly flat for 3 weeks, with no sustained move in either direction. The corn benchmark rose 2.5% over the same span (USDA). 11 regions contributed to the latest national median (USDA feedstuffs board). The market is in the summer stretch between planting and harvest, when old-crop supplies carry the board.
DDGS prices have been broadly flat for 3 weeks, with no sustained move in either direction. For the current picture, see DDGS prices by region.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | $169/ton | $165/ton | +2.7% |
| Month over month | $169/ton | $164/ton | +3.4% |
| Year over year | $169/ton | $150/ton | +12.7% |
| vs 4-yr median | $169/ton | $174/ton | -2.8% |
What makes DDGS prices rise
DDGS (distillers dried grains with solubles) is a co-product, not a crop: it is what remains when a dry-mill ethanol plant ferments the starch out of corn. Its supply is set by how hard ethanol plants run, not by how much feed anyone wants, and that one fact drives most DDGS price behavior. A handful of structural factors do the rest of the work every cycle.
Corn comes first. DDGS is fed largely in place of corn and soybean meal, so its price is anchored to theirs: when corn rises, every feed that substitutes for corn gets bid up with it. The DDGS vs corn spread tracks that relationship over time, and the nutrient-cost leaderboard shows whether DDGS is still cheap per unit of energy after a move.
Ethanol economics are the supply lever. When ethanol margins are thin, plants slow or idle, and the DDGS that would have come out of them never gets made. Less supply against steady feeding demand pushes the board up; the weekly ethanol-production backdrop on the DDGS hub is the public read on how hard the plants are running.
Protein-market pull is the second demand anchor. DDGS carries meaningful protein as well as energy, so a rally in soybean meal makes DDGS look cheap per pound of protein and pulls buying toward it — the DDGS vs soybean meal page tracks that pair, and the cheapest-protein board shows where it ranks after a move.
Export demand competes for the same tons. DDGS moves overseas in volume, and strong foreign buying can tighten the domestic board, lifting the FOB-plant quotes the regional pages track even in a week when domestic feeding demand is unchanged.
Freight and region decide how a national move lands. Feed is a freight business: the same ton of DDGS prices differently in Iowa, California and the Pacific Northwest because it has to get there. A rail or trucking squeeze can lift a distant region's quotes while the plant-gate price barely moves, which is why the by-region hub shows every region's own quote rather than one national number.
Winter feeding season is the demand calendar's high point. Cattle on feed through the cold months pull hardest on purchased feed, so the same supply squeeze bites harder from late fall through early spring than it would in the summer lull.
None of these act alone. A rising stretch is usually corn or ethanol economics leading, with protein markets, exports and freight deciding how far the move carries and how evenly it lands. The falling twin of this page covers the same factors running in reverse.