Analyzing the Utilization and Trade of Distillers’ Dried Grains with Solubles

The production and consumption of distillers’ dried grains with solubles (DDGS), a coproduct of corn-based ethanol, has rapidly grown over the last decade in the United States (U.S.) and lately in other countries that prompt biofuel production, such as Argentina. DDGS has a more concentrated nutritional value relative to traditional feed grains and can be used in feed rations to meet the energy and protein requirements. In the first study, I evaluated the factors that determine the exports of U.S. DDGS, while the second study focused on the effects of the inclusion of DDGS in the feed rations of swine in Argentina.

In the U.S., the feed use of DDGS has grown more than threefold between marketing year (MY) 2004/05 and 2014/15 and, over the same period, the demand for U.S. DDGS from global markets has also quickly risen. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the determinants of U.S. DDGS exports through a gravity model and develop a baseline of the DDGS exports to major international buyers up to 2020. This baseline was then used to evaluate the impacts of variation in the key determinants on DDGS exports in the future. Results suggest that importers’ meat production and consumption, importers’ stock of cattle, technical barriers to trade, tariffs, and U.S. ethanol production were influential to U.S. DDGS exports.

In the second part of this thesis the potential cost and phosphorus quantity effects of including DDGS in the feed rations on the Argentinean swine industry were analyzed. A conventional feed ration without DDGS and an alternative feed ration including DDGS were studied using cost and phosphorus minimization models for three different growth categories of swine in their growing and finishing growth stages. Results suggest that incorporating DDGS in a swine feed ration can potentially achieve the goals of minimum cost and minimum phosphorus content simultaneously. My assessment also implies that the Argentinean swine industry could benefit in cost savings of up to US $19.21 million and a reduction in phosphorus by five percent if DDGS was fully adopted in the feed rations for all growth categories of swine.