Animal Feed

 
DDGS Market

Dried Distillers Grains & Solubles (DDGS) is a very valuable co-product from the bio-refining concept.  Large quantities of concentrated protein are needed in the animal feed market to ensure that livestock growth targets can be met.  The UK market for animal feed is around 20m tonnes per annum, half of which is direct fed grains (such as wheat).  A further quarter of the annual total is imported feedstuffs such as high protein soy and rape meal.  It is against these products that DDGS will directly compete for a share of the animal diet.  In the past, DDGS has been imported in significant quantities from markets like the USA (around ¾m tonnes in 2005) but the presence of GM traces has since seen these products excluded from the UK market.

Protein is the most expensive part of formulating animal diets; products such as soy meal have traditionally traded at close to £300 per tonne, whilst rape meal has been discounted due to lower protein content and digestibility at c.£150 per tonne.  DDGS is liked by farmers as it will displace their higher priced meals; this is especially relevant in the ruminant (cattle and sheep) sector.

The vast majority of high protein animal feedstuffs today are imported and it is envisaged that the supply of DDGS will contribute towards reducing the UK's reliance on imported protein.