Ethanol Blog

Prices of dried distillers grains continued to fall this week, mirroring movement on the corn board. The downward movement should continue as harvest progresses and new crop corn begins to roll in.

The DTN weekly spot price average fell $3 per ton this week, from $211 per ton last week to $08 this week. This marks the fourth consecutive week that the average has decreased, falling a total of $16 per ton during that time, from $224 per ton in mid-September to this week's average of $208 per ton. This is also the lowest level the average has hit since late March of 2012.

Of the 30 Midwestern locations DTN collects prices from, 16 locations reported their prices had decreased between $3 and $10 per ton in the past week, although most price increases were in the $5-per-ton range. Prices at 10 locations remained unchanged since last week, while only three locations reported price increases of $2 to $5 per ton. One location did not report prices this week.

Merchandisers told DTN that the majority of price decreases was DDG following prices on the corn board that also fell, but also following lower prices on competing protein sources for livestock rations. Some plants reported shortness in supplies due to some plants still coming back from scheduled fall maintenance shutdowns.

The value of DDG relative to corn this week was at 132.59%; however, that is a distorted number. The abrupt shift in the DDG to corn ratio after July 12 is due to the transition from July corn futures to the lower-priced September corn contract. The value of DDG relative to soybean meal was at about 48.62%.

The cost per unit of protein for DDG this week was $8.32, compared to the cost per unit of protein for soybean meal at $9.01.

Cheryl Anderson can be reached at Cheryl.anderson@telventdtn.com.

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