Fort Madison Daily Democrat, IA
03-07-07
Two sides to ethanol
Chris Faulkner/Staff writer
To the city slicker, farming is farming, right?
Not quite.
The boom in the use of ethanol, i.e., corn-based products, means good news for
the farmer who plants corn. Corn prices are going up, and as long as the farmers
can meet the demand, things are looking good.
But farmers who raise cattle and other livestock give their animals corn-based
feed. Feed costs money. Can both sides come out in a win-win situation?
Byron Leu is hoping so.
Leu is the Iowa State University Area Livestock Specialist. He traveled the
state from late January into February talking to beef producers about the different
options of feed coming out of some ethanol plants.
It can get technical at times, but Leu tried to use commonplace examples.
“Most of the thing I focus on with ethanol is the production of the byproducts that
are used by the livestock producers,” Leu said.
First, there are two types of product coming out of the new plants cropping up
around the state and elsewhere.
Big River Resources in West Burlington is a dry milling plant. A wet milling plant,
Leu said, uses some ethanol and produces fructose to go in diet drinks.
“In our state,” Leu said, “we have a tremendous number of new dry milling plants
coming on board. The farmer comes in and brings a bushel of corn. It is
processed. What comes out is 2.75 gallons of ethanol.” (for gasoline in our
vehicles)
“The other thing that comes out is 18 pounds of byproduct such as dried or wet
distillers, condensed distiller solubles...three or four different products.”
The byproducts go into feed for the livestock farmer.
“We are looking at trying to figure out the best use of it,” Leu said. “Generally, I've
been going around and doing a number of meetings. Attendance has been
positive. We've been talking about the good, bad and ugly of these products.”
Good, bad, ugly
First the good. “If it's purchased right,” Leu said, “it's priced competitive with our
existing corn- and soybean-based feed.
“It's a very high-energy, high-protein product (to feed the livestock). It seems to
work very, very well in beef rations. It has a very highly soluble, high-quality
product.”
Best of all, “Animals like it.”
Leu said it has a little bit more of extra energy than just corn. In layman's terms,
“If you want energy, you're going to eat a Snickers (brand) candy bar at lunch. If
you want super energy, you take a Mountain Dew with your candy bar.”
The protein, which livestock need, is more condensed in the corn byproduct.
Corn has seven to eight percent protein, whereas the new byproduct has 20 to
30 percent protein.
Ah, but what's the bad news?
That comes in choosing the wet vs. dry distillers grain or a product in between.
“The dry distillers grain tends to be 90 percent dry matter.” Leu said. “It will store
readily. You're not handling or hauling waters. It's better for transportation.
“But the wet distillers grain can be 60 to the low 70 percent in moisture, or about
2/3 water. When you get that, you have to make sure you pay accordingly.
“Storage is tough. You take the stuff out of the truck and its consistency is such
that it doesn't keep the air out of it. It's too wet to pack. You have to mix it or use
it in five to seven days. That makes it tougher on the small producer.”
Leu compared it with someone buying 500 gallons of syrup at the store. After
filling all their glasses and containers with it, there's still plenty left, so what do
they do with it?
A modified corn distillers product is about half water, half product. “But again,”
Leu said, “you have to watch it or it will go out of condition.
“The higher quality tends to be somewhat higher priced. If they have to dry it,
they have more to invest in it. You're buying more product with the dryer grain.”
Leu said the impact on livestock producers has been positive - whether they're
raising beef cattle or dairy animals.
“All this is coming about in less than 10 years,” Leu said. “That's an amazing
statistic to me. There was hardly any movement in the ethanol industry. Now we
have people all over the place.”
The ugly part?
“One of the problems we're getting challenged at,” Leu said “is there are a lot of
small producers. Less than a third of farming constituents is full time. A lot of
these folks work in town and work on the farm as well as farm on the side. You
need to have a distribution center - some way to get the product.
“We need to have it delivered and unloaded with a time in mind so it doesn't end
up unpalatable. The ugly part is probably storage and making sure you rotate it
properly.”
Also, there's still much to learn about the product, even as its use is growing.
The biggest change Leu sees for Lee, Des Moines, Henry and Van Buren
counties are the amounts of corn grown compared to other products on a given
farm.
“The supply of feed that's going through as well as the supply of corn going
through will change the countryside dramatically,” Leu said. “Just in agricultural
production we're going to have to have more corn. We'll go from 50-plus percent
corn and just under 50 percent (soybeans) to two-thirds corn, one-thirds bean or
75 percent corn, 25 percent beans.”
That will be an economics decision for the corn and bean farmers to make.
Whatever their decision, it's clear that the growing ethanol industry is having an
impact on many aspects of the Iowa farm communities.