Feeding co-products gets complicated

by PATRICIA GROTENHUIS

Corn steep water and condensed distillers grains are both becoming common livestock feeds.  The demand is making the products difficult to source so producers buy it from different locations each time, leading to variability.

“The main challenge is trying to source co-product in a saturated market,” says Jay Squire from Wallenstein Feed and Supply.

Squire, along with Ron Lackey, feed ingredients and byproducts feeding specialist, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, addressed close to 100 producers and industry representatives at a Swine Liquid Feeding Association seminar in Stratford on Feb. 23.

Lackey stresses that the products are not interchangeable and have different inclusion levels, so farmers should work closely with a nutritionist to determine which is right for their operation.

Currently, condensed distiller’s grains can be bought from ethanol plants in Chatham, Aylmer or Collingwood’s Canadian Mist distillery. Corn steep water can be bought from London, Cardinal and Port Colborne CASCO plants or the ethanol plant in Collingwood..

As the popularity of feeding co-products increases, supply is shrinking. Farmers either hire brokers or call each plant to find product. To add to the complications, the nutrient analysis varies based on where the product is purchased.

The University of Guelph and the Ontario agriculture ministry tested random samples of condensed distillers and corn steep water from different plants in Ontario at Agri-Food Laboratories. 

Condensed distillers results showed a spread of eight per cent in dry matter between the four samples.  There were also differences of three per cent in crude protein, seven per cent in fibre, three per cent in fat and five per cent in starch. Ash, which contains minerals, had a variation of four per cent.

The story is similar for corn steep water.  Dry matter content varied by 12 per cent, protein by 10 per cent, fat by three per cent, and starch by two per cent.  Fibre was non-existent in three samples, but in the fourth was almost eight per cent and ash varied by nine per cent.

Corn steep water had higher dry matter, protein, ash and starch while condensed distillers grains had higher fibre and fat. Dry corn had lower protein and higher starch than the two co-products and fell between condensed distillers and corn steep water in fibre and fat. BF