Did you know that in the past 10 years, the biodiesel industry has grown from a few million gallons of biodiesel production per year to over 2 billion gallons of biodiesel production last year? And did you know that the three leading feedstocks for biodiesel are soybean oil, animal fats and corn oil? Well, now you do thanks to Kaleb Little, senior communications manager for the National Biodiesel Board (NBB).  Little shared the story of the biodiesel industry during the #2016 AgMedia Summit in St. Louis this week. Jamie Johansen spoke with him about some of the benefits the biodiesel industry brings including to livestock producers.

“The livestock industry has always been important to biodiesel. As the biodiesel industry grows, it’s becoming more and more important to the livestock groups,” explained Little. “About 25 percent of the animal fats produced last year actually went in to biodiesel production. So a little over 2 billion gallons of fuel was produced in the U.S. market, so 25 percent of that came from animal fats. So that has a big connection.”

Last year about half of the biodiesel gallons came from soybean oil and in terms of the co-product, soybean meal for animal feed, the industry’s number one customer is the livestock industry – a message that NBB shares with the industry.

Little stressed that the biodiesel industry is exploding and Jamie asked him what does the growth of the industry look like. He noted that as the industry continues to ramp up production, it will use larger amounts of feedstocks including soybean oil, corn oil and waste oils such as animal fats.

“As the industry continues to grow into the future, up to 4 billion gallons by 2022, we see all of those feedstock categories growing,” Little added.

Listen to Jamie’s interview with Kaleb Little to learn more about the benefits the biodiesel industry is providing to the livestock industry: Interview with Kaleb Little, NBB

View and download photos from the event here: 2016 AMS Photo Album