Outlining his priorities for farm policy this week, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stressed the need for continued support of renewable fuels in the next farm bill. “Rural America has done a great job of helping to develop the domestically-produced renewable energy and fuel. That job must continue because when we create those opportunities, we create jobs, we reduce our reliance …
USDA Report Shows Value of Ethanol Co-Product
A new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report finds that the ethanol co-product known as distillers grains or DDGS is replacing even more corn and soybean meal in livestock and poultry feed rations than previously thought. According to the report by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS), “We found that, on average, for the past 5 crop years (2006/07-2010/11), 1 mt …
Anti-Ethanol Blender Pump Amendment Pulled
An amendment offered by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that would have stopped funding for Flex Fuel blender pumps was pulled before it came up for a vote this week. “While the withdrawal of this amendment is an important milestone, we will continue to encourage Congress to oppose any other effort that would erect new barriers to the market,” said Growth …
USDA Plans to Cancel Ethanol Co-Product Report
In a cost-cutting measure, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is planning to cancel the Distiller Co-Products for Feed Survey announced in March slated to be done in January 2012. The report, which was designed to better calculate the use of the ethanol co-product known as DDGS in livestock feed, is one of several that USDA plans to eliminate or …
Biodiesel Fuels Soybean Oil Production
Corn stocks and use for ethanol seem to get all the attention when the USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates are released each month, but soybean oil use for biodiesel attracting some notice lately. World Agricultural Outlook Board Chairman Gerry Bange says soybean oil use for biodiesel is up 44% over last year at 3.6 billion pounds. “The EPA …
USDA Predicts Smaller Corn Crop But Larger Inventory
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has shaved another 64 million bushels off projections for this year’s corn crop, but added 208 million bushels to beginning corn stocks for 2011/12. Corn production is now forecast at 12.4 billion bushels, down 1 percent from the September forecast and down slightly from the 2010 production estimate, but still expected to be the fourth …
Ag Secretary Criticizes Report on Biofuels
The U.S. Department of Agriculture was one of the government agencies that sponsored a report on biofuels released yesterday by the National Research Council, but the secretary of agriculture is critical of the findings. “I think they’re basing conclusions on old information that’s not as accurate as it once was,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack during a press conference on …
More Corn Stocks Positive for Ethanol
More corn stocks than expected showed up in the latest report out from USDA on Friday, which was a pleasant surprise for the ethanol industry. Despite the fact that corn stocks are reported to be 34% lower than a year ago, it was expected to be much worse, even just a few weeks prior to the Friday Grain Stocks report. …
Southeast Partnership Formed for Biomass Development
Development of biomass for energy in the southeast was also included in the USDA grants announced this week in the Pacific Northwest. Among the grants is $15 million for research to be led by the University of Tennessee to develop sustainable feedstock production systems using switchgrass and woody biomass that will “produce low-cost, easily converted sugars for biochemical conversion to …
Sorghum Could be Aviation Biofuel Feedstock
Louisiana State University is getting $17 million from USDA to study how to turn sugar cane and sorghum into biofuels. The project is one of the five announced yesterday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, focused on developing aviation biofuels from various types of biomass. “We have an incredible opportunity to create thousands of new jobs and drive economic development in …