"Concerns about nutritional value, shelf life, transportation or simply a lack of knowledge on ethanol coproducts like distillers grains is relatively small - all less than 10 percent," Brunkhorst said. "That's good news because it shows efforts to educate livestock producers on distillers grains - the main ethanol coproduct - are working and that we are on track in those efforts."

Results of a distillers grains usage survey were recently released by the USDA. The survey, conducted by the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, was co-funded by the Nebraska Corn Board, the Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP) and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA).

The survey was conducted in 2006 across 9,400 livestock operations in 12 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Among the results, 38 percent of dairy operations indicated that they fed coproducts during 2006 and another 22 percent considered doing so. Among cattle on feed operations, 36 percent fed coproducts and 34 percent more considered it. Among beef cattle operations, 13 percent reported that they fed coproducts and 30 percent considered it. For hog operations, 12 percent fed coproducts and 35 percent considered it.

"There's very little good market information on how and where distillers grain are being used," said Geoff Cooper, NCGA director of Ethanol and Business Development. "The results provide good insight into the industry's attitudes toward distillers grains, as well as feeding and procurement practices."

Source: Midwestbullseye