A new USDA report says that about half of the cattle and hog operations in a 12-state Midwest region either fed ethanol co-products or considered feeding them to their livestock last year.

This story from Cattle Network.com says about 9,400 livestock operations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin were surveyed.

Among dairy operations, 38 percent indicated that they fed co-products during 2006 and another 22 percent considered doing so. Among cattle on feed operations, 36 percent fed co-products and 34 percent more considered it. Among beef cattle operations, 13 percent reported that they fed co-products and 30 percent considered it. For hog operations, 12 percent fed co-products and 35 percent considered it.

Of the various types of co-products available to operations for feeding, corn gluten feed was used by 46 percent of beef cow operations and 38 percent of cattle on feed operations, while distillers dried grains were used by 45 percent of dairy cattle operations and 44 percent of hog operations Other co-products that the survey looked at included distillers dried grains with solubles, condensed distillers solubles, brewers grains and distillers wet grains.

The report goes on to say that for those who don’t use the ethanol co-products, the main reason is a lack of availability.