A million tonnes of DDGs pushed onto UK market

Material from these plants will help fill the cattle fodder gaps for the coming winter. In particular, the ethanol co-products will make a contribution to lowering the demand for imported protein and soybean meal.

The two new British ethanol plants include the Ensus plant on Teeside, which is already operating, and the Vivergo plant near Hull, which is gearing up to production over the next couple of months.

Both plants are based in the grain-growing region of the east of England. Each plant can handle more than 1 million tonnes of British grown feed wheat. Between them, the two plants are expected to put over 1million tonnes of extra animal feed per year onto the British and Irish markets.

A spokesman for Vivergo said that the 2m tonnes of wheat feedstock for the ethanol plants would normally be exported (in most years Britain exports 3m tonnes of wheat).

The first co-products from the Ensus bioethanol plant are already on sale in Ireland.

The basic product is Northern Gold, a moist feed of 36% dry matter, 26% protein with 13.6 kJ ME, and is sold at about €140/t delivered.

Another ethanol co-product wheat syrup (28% dry matter, 40% protein and 14.2 kJ ME), is being delivered to Irish farmers at €85 to €90/t, depending on the distance from the east coast.

Pelleted DDGS
The bulk of product from the Vivergo plant will be marketed as pelleted DDGS with 92% DM, 32% CP and 13.7 kJ ME. This too can be used to replace imported soybean and maize meal.

The product can be included in the ration to up to 20% for dairy cows and upt to 37% for beef cattle rations.