And, of course, it's more than soy. Here's another article on the subject, this one focusing on the benefit for cattle. Article here.
Oilseeds pressed for fuel make good eating for cows
By TOM LUTEY
Of The Gazette Staff
A lot of adjectives are used to market biodiesel - lean, green and
homegrown, to name a few - but scientists this week offered up another:
yummy.
Biodiesel
production in the United States has surged this decade, from barely
measurable amounts in 1999 to more than 250 million gallons in 2007. On
the back end of that jump in production are millions of tons of pressed
oilseed, which turns out to be pretty good cow food.
"Our cows like it better," said Jeanne Charter, who ranches 19 miles north of Billings.
Earlier
this week, as Charter's husband, Steve, made the rounds with the feed
truck, the couple's Angus and Charolais cattle turned their noses up at
the first helping. The offering didn't have the crushed safflower meal
to which the cows are accustomed. But the second pass had five pounds
of meal mixed in, and suddenly everyone crowded the truck.
Ranchers are beginning to crowd the oilseed meal market, but their
interest is more about empty wallets than empty stomachs. With corn
feed selling for $225 a ton, a product like safflower meal selling for
$90 to $120 is a relative bargain. The Charters have bought 78 tons of
the meal in the past year and would have bought more had their
supplier, Montola oil of Culbertson, not run out.
There's
seed meal on hand now at the Montola plant, said president Paul Miller,
but for the first time it's all spoken for. He attributes the rush on
oilseed meal to the rising cost of corn feed, which has more ranchers
browsing Montola.com to see what the 3-year-old company has for sale.
"We
produce it by the ton and sell it by the ton in mostly truck
quantities, which is 40,000 to 50,000 pounds," Miller said. "The big
thing is freight with diesel costing almost $4 a gallon."
The Charters bought a seed press from a company in India so they can produce their own meal.
The
meal isn't just a cheap substitute for corn; it's actually better for
the cows Americans eat, said Greg Lardy, an animal science professor at
North Dakota State University. Lardy issued a report Tuesday outlining
the merits of feeding meal to livestock. He said there's a real
opportunity for meal to make a difference for cattle wintering on
natural grass in Western states. Those cattle desperately need a
supplement of protein to see them through. Oilseed meal is a good
candidate, he said.
With their $5,000 press, the Charters
started making their own meal this winter. They turned to two local
gear heads and biodiesel users for help.
One of the helpers,
Craig Hall of Billings, powers his 2004 Dodge pickup exclusively with
vegetable oil recycled from restaurants. Hall swears by recycled oil,
which he's able to run in his Dodge diesel with no alterations to the
engine. He has had to add a heated fuel tank and a pump to deliver the
vegetable oil and keep it from jelling up on cold days.
Although
he hasn't tried it yet, Hall is certain that safflower oil from the
Charters' press would run in his vehicle just fine. Vegetable oils
usually do, although some require a little thinning with gasoline, he
said. The only thing holding him back from running nonrecycled oil is
the cost.
"The used stuff is usually free," Hall said. "If you
were to buy it new, Costco has it for 78 cents a pound, or about $5.58
a gallon."
Biodiesel advocates say making the waste of the
alternative fuel profitable is crucial to getting the fuel's overall
price lowered. If the only profit turned on the crop is from fuel, then
biodiesel's odds at success aren't good.
