Study compares U.S. feed corn to imports from Brazil and Ukraine

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Study compares U.S. feed corn to imports from Brazil and Ukraine

A new research project is stacking up U.S. corn against competing feed grains from around the world.

The U.S. Grains Council, Minnesota and North Dakota Corn Growers Associations, and Northern Crops Institute are importing Ukrainian and Brazilian corn, and re-importing corn originally shipped from the U.S. so they can compare corn milling and feed efficiency.

Northern Crops Institute director Mark Jirik tells Brownfield the milling study was done at their feed mill on the campus of North Dakota State University.

“Just to see the use of electricity in doing the milling and pelleting, but also doing some pelleting quality studies just to find out how does that corn look and how does that corn perform versus those other origins.”

He says there’s also a swine feeding trial at South Dakota State University and a poultry feed trial at Auburn University.

“Just to find out if there are differences, and hopefully turn something that a buyer might say is a detriment (and) at a minimum show the U.S. is on the same playing field. But the hope is we can actually show some advantages for the U.S. farmer and prove the value that we produce.”

Jirik says they are compiling data from the milling study and gearing up for the feeding trials with a target of late summer for releasing all results.

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