Japanese distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) end-users visiting the U.S. Midwest pose with Bruce Rohwer, an Iowa farmer, and his family in front of his combine. Sept. 16, 2015.

Members of a Japanese DDGS team visiting the United States tour an ethanol plant in Marcus, Iowa. Sept. 16, 2015.

At a Purina feedmill, Japanese end-users are briefed on the workings of the mill before a short tour of the facility located in Inver Heights, Minnesota. Sept. 15, 2015. 

A team of Japanese DDGS end-users attended a short course at the University of Minnesota to learn about the benefits of feeding DDGS to swine herds. Sept. 14, 2015.

###

The U.S. Grains Council (USGC) hosted a team of Japanese distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) end-users in the U.S. Corn Belt this week to help them learn about long-term purchasing strategies and utilization of U.S DDGS in their feed rations.

Japan is currently the seventh largest buyer of U.S. DDGS for this year, having purchased 135,250 metrics tons of the corn co-product, valued at $32 million, between January 2015 and July 2015.

The goal of this team was to give a select group of important buyers an opportunity to see the grain production chain for themselves and ask questions directly at farms and ethanol plants, increasing their understanding of U.S. corn quality and how to get the products they most want.

The team specifically focused on low-oil DDGS, which recently have become more available because U.S. ethanol producers are now removing more of the non-food grade corn oil from the DDGS they produce. This process changes the feeding characteristics and potential value of DDGS, as regular DDGS may contain 10-12 percent oil (fat), while the low-oil variety may contain 6 to 9 percent.

The high oil content of traditional DDGS limited Japanese inclusion rates in their livestock feed rations due to concerns about decreasing pork fat firmness and depressing milk fat content. For this reason, low-oil DDGS is beneficial to the Japanese swine and dairy sectors, a message the Council is working to spread through trade servicing efforts and teams like the one visiting the Midwest this week.

Additional photos are available here.