How biofuels boost beef production

A common misunderstanding in the "food versus fuel" debate is based on a narrowminded 'exclusivist' logic. Some think that if you plant energy crops for biofuels it means that you are using land that can then no longer be used to produce food and feed. Both are mutually exclusive, they say. Obviously, the contrary is true. In fact, the more biofuels you produce, the more feed becomes available (which eventually becomes food).

The soybean industry illustrates this logic best. Before biodiesel began to be produced in large quantities, soybean oil was considered to be a low-value "byproduct" or even "waste". After all, soybeans were grown primarily for their meal, which is used to feed cattle and poultry. Soybean oil eventually found a market for certain food products such as margarine. But beef and poultry consumption rose far more quickly than margarine demand (with China as the driving market). So as the soybean acreage expanded to satisfy the demand for beef, so much oil became available that the non-feed market could not keep up. Soybean oil prices plummetted. The arrival of the biodiesel industry came just in time and is now the biggest market for soybean oil.

This logic holds for virtually all non-woody bioenergy crops. The residues left from producing ethanol, biodiesel or biogas, are valuable by-products that can be used for a range of products, one of them being animal fodder. An example: if you crush palm oil fruits, you get oil out of them that can be used for biodiesel, but you also get a lot of protein and oil rich press-cake, an excellent component of a pig meal. But that same presscake can be used as a feedstock for biogas, as an organic fertilizer or as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol. One raw biomass product (palm fruit) now has four different markets. Looking at prices on this market, the producer can decide which fractions of that biomass will be used for which market. Or take sago [previous post], a single palm on which an entire integrated farming system can be based, which yields food, fibre, fuel (biogas and ethanol) and fodder.

In the case of animal feed, the cycle is not closed yet. Biomass residues from biofuels are fed to cattle, pigs and poultry, who, in turn, produce vast amounts of manure. And obviously, this methane rich biomass is an excellent feedstock for biogas, fertilizer or even for a diesel-like oil. (See this article for a new method to convert manure into diesel like fuel.)

In short, what we are seeing is the development of a truly integrated "bioproducts" industry, where previously separate commodity streams - energy, food, feed, fibre and biomaterials - now converge into one point and where complex sets of possible open-ended chains and cycles intertwine.

It is this vision which those who hold an exclusivist position in the "food versus fuel" debate do not understand.

Let's listen to the cattle producers in Iowa, though. They once had a thriving cattle-industry but it went in decline during the past two decades. They now think that their industry may be revived... because of the ethanol boom, not in spite of it:
ethanol :: biodiesel :: biobutanol :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: Africa ::


Cattle producers say Iowa is poised to make a comeback as a major beef-producing state -- thanks to Iowa's booming ethanol industry.

Once the starch is removed from the corn kernel and used for ethanol production, a high-protein feed that can be cheaply fed to livestock is left behind.

Demand is increasing for the high-protein co-product of ethanol. Increasingly, Iowa cattle producers have learned just how good the feed is for their cattle.

"It's a cheap source of dietary protein," said John Hall, a cattle feeder from Ankeny. "We know the cattle like it."

According to John Lawrence, director of the Iowa Beef Industry Center at Iowa State University, Iowa ranked first in the number of cattle marketed from 1968-1972. But Iowa's fed-cattle market totals fell from about 4 million head per year 35 years ago to about 1.5 million last year, he said.

Several factors, including packing plants moving to the Southwest, environmental concerns, and development of large feedlots, led to the drop.

Lawrence and others believe the availability of distillers dried grains and other ethanol extras will give Iowa, the nation's top ethanol-producing state, a competitive advantage over cattle-feeding states that don't make as much ethanol.

"As the ethanol industry grows here, it's real simple to see that we are going to have a big advantage over the big Western feedlots," Hall said. "It's a great thing for Iowa to bring some cattle back to this state. We've got young people wanting to enter the cattle business for the long pull. This might be one of the best ways to do it."

WCF CourierCattle producers think ethanol industry can boost beef production.