USDA: Corn use for ethanol at 449 million bushels in October
January 4, 2023
BY Erin Voegele
The USDA recently released its Grain Crushings and Co-Products Production report for December, reporting that corn use for fuel ethanol production in October was up when compared to the previous month, but down when compared to October 2021.
Total corn consumed for alcohol and other uses was at 505 million bushels in October, up 16 percent when compared to the previous month, but down 3 percent when compared to the same month of the previous year. October usage included 91.2 percent for alcohol and 8.8 percent for other purposes.
Corn consumed for fuel alcohol production reached 449 million bushels, up 17 percent when compared to September, but down 4 percent from October 2021. Corn consumed for dry milling fuel production and wet milling fuel production was 92.4 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively.
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The USDA withheld the volume of sorghum consumed for fuel alcohol production in both September 2022 and October 2022 to avoid disclosing data for individual operations, but reported that 693,000 hundredweight (cwt) (38,808 tons) of sorghum went to fuel alcohol production in October 2021.
At dry mills, condensed distillers solubles production reached 102,605 tons, up from both 101,728 tons the previous month and 95,239 tons in October of the previous year. Corn oil production reached 186,770 tons, up from 159,873 tons in September and 183,804 tons in October 2021. Distillers dried grains production reached 388,993 tons, up from 281,984 tons the previous month and 383,939 tons in October of the previous year. Distillers dried grains with solubles production was at 1.75 million tons, up from 1.61 million tons in September, but down from 1.95 tons in October 2021. Distillers wet grains production expanded to 1.4 million tons, up from both 1.25 million tons the previous month and 1.3 tons in October of the previous year. Modified distillers grain production was at 490,060 tons, down from 498,142 tons in September, but up from 396,748 tons in October 2021.
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At wet mills, corn germ meal production was at 56,209 tons, up from 48,056 tons the previous month, but down from 65,635 tons in October 2021. Corn gluten feed production was at 268,672 tons, up from 238,468 tons in September, but down from 300,634 tons in October of the previous year. Corn gluten meal production reached 116,270 tons, up from 101,787 tons the previous month and 108,083 tons in October 2021. Wet corn gluten feed production was at 208,273 tons, up from 192,999 tons in September, but down from 212,455 tons in October of the previous year.
Carbon dioxide captured at both wet and dry mills was at 220,219 tons, up from 215,487 tons the previous month, but down from 236,582 tons in October 2021.
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