Distillers dried grain has become a tantalizing new option in U.S. feed markets, but in Western Canada, the alternative feed ingredient isn’t even on the menu. While ethanol plants south of the border are expected to churn out 17.5 million tonnes of DDG in the 2006-07 crop year, Western Canada is sitting at 9,600 tonnes of production, all of which comes from the Husky Energy plant in Minnedosa, Man.
“That’s about it right now. It’s not a substantial amount,” said Darwin Ruso, a trader with Wilbur-Ellis, a commodity trading company contracted by Husky to market the byproduct of its current and future ethanol plants.
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Output is set to jump when new large-scale plants come on stream. Husky plants under construction in Lloydminster, Sask., and Minnedosa will add 260,000 tonnes of DDG, and the NorAmera Bioenergy plant in Weyburn, Sask., will contribute another 23,000 tonnes.
Ruso said it is too early to tell what part of the livestock industry will become the primary market for DDG.
“We’re just not 100 percent sure where it is going to fit in yet.”
He said the wheat-based product has many of the same attributes of canola meal, which is used in beef, dairy and hog diets.
Wilbur-Ellis has identified a premium market for the product in Washington and Oregon, but it is too costly to transport the product by rail to those destinations.
