ABOUT a third of US corn used in ethanol production ends up as a high-quality animal feed.
This biofuel byproduct produced is equivalent to the total feed consumption of all the cattle in Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado - the US' four biggest feedlot states.
The statistics are contained in a report just released by the Renewable Fuels Association in the US to counter biofuels critics' main claim that corn used for ethanol drives up stockfeed prices and the cost of food.
The RFA report said that while the amount of corn processed into ethanol was well-documented, what was often overlooked was the simultaneous increase in the amount of animal feed produced by the biofuels industry.
The biofuels industry in the US, Australia and in other countries have been stung by claims the ethanol boom is the major cause of rising food prices.
But an increasing body of evidence, including a report by the Texas A&M University in April, is pointing the finger at rising crude oil prices and speculative hedge fund activity as the main causes of rising food prices.
The university said "corn prices have had little to do with rising food costs".
The RFA report said the US ethanol industry provided a significant source of animal feed, often cheaper than corn grain on a kilogram of protein basis.
"In the 2007-08 marketing year (up to August 31), the US ethanol industry generated approximately 23 million tons (20 million tonnes) of high quality feed for beef cattle, dairy cows, swine and poultry, making the renewable fuels sector one of the larger feed processing segments in the US," it said.
"Grain ethanol co-products, including distillers' grain, corn gluten feed and corn gluten meal, are expected to approach 30 million metric tons in 2008-09.
"In recent years, ethanol co-product feeds have typically been priced at a discount to the feed ingredients they replace, meaning livestock and poultry feeders often take advantage of the value of these products in least-cost ration formulations."
The RFA said a bushel (25.4kg) of corn produced about 7.7kg of distillers' grains and 10.6 litres of ethanol.
It said about three billion bushels (76 million tonnes) of corn was processed for the 12 months to August 31 this year, to produce 22.8 million tonnes of stockfeed.
That was expected to top 30 million tonnes this year.
Exports of dry distillers' grain have boomed during the past two years, virtually doubling each year since 2006.
More than four million tonnes of DDGs were expected to be exported by the US this year, the RFA said.
The association said distillers' grains had sold at a discount to the price of corn since September, 2006.
It said the DDG price had averaged about 90 per cent of corn prices since that time, although it was currently about 75 per cent of corn values.
