Push By Ethanol Producers Into Corn Oil Raises Concerns Over DDGs

FoxBusiness
Published March 20, 2012
Dow Jones Newswires

CHICAGO – A push by U.S. ethanol companies into corn oil is starting to give the livestock industry indigestion.

Corn oil, which is used both for cooking oil and to make biodiesel fuel, has emerged over the last year as a lucrative niche product for ethanol producers looking to add new revenue at a time of weak returns. Corn-oil production, though, comes with a downside: extracting the oil cuts into the fat content of the ethanol industry's major byproduct--distillers dried grain.

The yellow, powdery substance known as DDGs is ubiquitous in the feed rations for cattle, hogs and poultry. Yet extracting corn oil makes DDGs less effective at helping animals grow ahead of slaughter.

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