Stakeholders exchange information at corn oil event

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Holly Jessen March 23, 2012

DES MOINES—About 180 ethanol producers, animal feed companies, animal nutritionists and university researchers attended a half-day meeting entitled “How is oil extraction impacting DDGS value in swine” on March 21 in Des Moines, Iowa. Attendees also heard presentations concluding that antibiotic residue in distillers grains are not biologically active and the results of two mycotoxin surveys.

Rob Musser, director of technical sales and marketing for Nutriquest, which sponsored the event, presented information about the Mason City, Iowa-based company’s database of DDGS nutrient loadings from more than 130 U.S. ethanol plants. Referred to as Illuminate, the program helps ethanol plants target the right customer for their product and provides feed customers with better comfort levels for using more distillers grains or continuing to use the product when prices rise, Musser said.

Based on the corn oil percentage levels in the distillers grains in the Illuminate database, the company estimated the growth in corn oil extraction in the past year. The data showed that 20 percent of ethanol plants were extracting corn oil as of March 2011 and—as of March 2012—that percentage had grown to 40 percent. Musser estimated that 70 to 80 percent of ethanol plants will be extracting corn oil by the end of 2012. Still, he clarified that the Illuminate numbers were somewhat “fuzzy” due to the fact that various facilities extract different percentages of corn oil and some facilities may only be ramping up corn oil extraction levels.

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