It is not every day that large-scale volumes of a brand-new material with potential value as an ingredient in intensive livestock rations comes along.
As a result, the arrival of by-product from the new Dalby ethanol refinery will be closely monitored by industry in coming months.
Stockfeed company Castlegate VGS has won the contract to market the majority of the sorghum by-products from the plant, comprising mostly wet distillers grains plus solubles (WDGS) and condensed distillers syrup (CDS).
Castlegate VGS general manager Bill Barrett said when the plant reaches full capacity, which could happen as early as mid-January, the products from the distilling process will amount to thousands of tonnes per week, 52 weeks a year.
This represented a substantial new opportunity for access to ration ingredients for intensive feeding for ruminants like feedlot and dairy cattle, as well as piggeries.
"It's a whole new era, and it's an exciting event for the stock feed industry and intensive livestock feeders in particular," Mr Barrett said.
"The products are quite different from grains, with the starch being utilised in the distilling process, leaving the material high in fat (and thus energy) and true protein."
He said one of the real benefits which could be overlooked by potential users was that the product still had an excellent energy level, but because of the lower starch content, there were less feeding problems associated with acidosis.
"There have been many suggestions that sub-clinical acidosis has a greater impact on performance than many people realise, so this is an important consideration," Mr Barrett said.
WDGS will have a minimum dry matter content of 35 percent.
Because the balance (65pc) is water, the product would obviously be self-limiting in how far it can be economically transported.
* Extract from a full report in Queensland Country Life, December 11 edition.
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