Ethanol Production Aiding Livestock Feed Supply
US - The country's ethanol industry will continue to grow in 2009, thereby creating a substantial increase in the supply of dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS), an ethanol co-product.
21 October 2008
3 minute read
More than 500 attendees at the United States Grains Council’s (USGC) International Distillers Grains Conference (IDGC) in Indianapolis, Indiana, heard that ethanol production increased in 2008 by approximately 3 billion gallons to 9.3 billion gallons compared to last year. Even more critically, production is projected by Informa Economics to reach 11.9 billion gallons in 2009. According to Ken Hobbie, USGC president and CEO, roughly 33 percent of the grain going into US ethanol production will come out as DDGS.
* "Who would have believed five years ago that the ethanol industry would be the largest supplier of energy in this country? That will happen by the conclusion of 2009." |
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Bruce Rastetter, CEO of Council member Hawkeye Renewables
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“The reason we’re holding this conference is that we are confident the US ethanol industry will continue to grow due to efforts undertaken by the National Corn Growers Association and state producer organizations over the last several years,” said Hobbie. “Due to the efforts of US growers to establish the ethanol industry, we made DDGS our top priority in 2006 and since then have seen DDGS exports exceed 2 million metric tons annually.”
Addressing over 140 international participants, Bruce Rastetter, CEO of Council member Hawkeye Renewables, said a growth in ethanol production and a substantial increase in a high quality feed ingredient was to be expected.
“Who would have believed five years ago that the ethanol industry would be the largest supplier of energy in this country? That will happen by the conclusion of 2009,” Rastetter said.
Senior Vice President of Informa Economics Scott Richman said as a result of the growth in the US ethanol industry seen this year, 22.8 million tons of DDGS were available for global use in 2007/2008 marketing year, marking nearly a 50 percent increase from the 2006/2007 marketing year. He said the 2008/2009 marketing year, which just began on October 1st, is likely to experience an additional 50 percent increase in the availability of DDGS, reaching 31.3 million tons.
“There will be a substantial amount of DDGS available for global livestock industries,” said Richman. “It looks like we are going to be pushing more DDGS into export markets. The US Grains Council’s efforts promoting US DDGS and opening several new markets across the globe is helping the US ethanol industry in a big way. As production increases, the Council will have more opportunities to expand markets for this co-product.”
