Since our last Distillers Grains Production & Markets monthly newsletter, I’ve learned some good news about a value-added company featured in our winter issue and attended a distillers grains event in Des Moines, Iowa.

First, the news about Laurel BioComposite LLC. The Nebraska company, which turns wet distillers grains into a bio-based resin for plastics production, is—as we speak—at the International Plastics Showcase in Orlando, Fla. Company representatives have a booth at the April 2 - 5 event, where they are passing out samples of Bio-Res pellets and molded products produced at their pilot plant in rural Coleridge, Neb. Their media contact confirmed they were at the show and predicted they are probably “walking their feet off,” something I can relate to, having quite a few conferences under my belt at this point.

Back in mid-March, Laurel BioComposite purchased equipment, taking the next step in scaling up to full production. The ENTEK E-Max 53mm twin screw extruder means the company can produce 1,000 pounds of Bio-Res per hour, giving it the ability to produce test articles for customers from its pilot plant. Plans are to build a full-scale production facility in Laurel, Neb.

Congratulations to Laurel BioComposite for making measurable progress in its goal to put distillers grains in plastics—such as the 14-foot kayak with 20 percent Bio-Res, which they have on display at the plastics conference. It always exciting for me to note the milestones of a company that I have written about in the development phase.

A few weeks before the plastics conference, I attended a half-day event sponsored by Nutriquest. My overall impression was that there is more work for animal nutritionists and researchers to do, before it’s fully understood what the impacts of corn oil extraction are on distillers grains. Gerald Shurson, a University of Minnesota swine nutrition and management professor, and Brian Kerr, an animal scientist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, gave a presentation called “It’s not the fat, it’s the fiber,” which illustrated that researchers and nutritionists need to get a better handle on fiber content, rather than focusing solely on corn oil. Corn oil levels in distillers grains simply aren’t the most accurate measurement of digestible energy and metabolizable energy.

One of the comments that Shurson made at the event really caught my attention. Distillers grains isn’t the only feed ingredient that has variable nutrient content—and yet—he said, it’s the one that that nutritionists have spent the most time studying, developing tools to estimate nutrient content. I asked him in a follow up email what feed ingredients he was referring to and this is what he said. “Relatively speaking, the variability in nutrient content among DDGS sources is greater than corn and soybean meal, but comparable to other by-products used in animal feeds such as animal protein by-products, wheat midds, bakery by-product, etc.,” he told me in in an email.

Of course, that doesn’t mean researchers shouldn’t continue to aim for a good handle on estimating nutrient content of distillers grains, especially low-oil product. The need for continued research was emphasized at the event in Des Moines. It’s important to keep perspective on the matter, however. It’s not a complete picture to vilify distillers grains for nutrient variability and leave out the fact that other feed ingredients have the same issue. Sound familiar to what critics do when vilifying the ethanol industry as a whole—loudly proclaiming only part of the big picture? I hear a familiar ring.