Most of last years U.S. corn crop will go to feed livestock (57%, according to USDA’s Economic Research Service).

51% of the value of Iowa agricultural output in 2005 from from livestock production.  Value of Iowa’s livestock output was $8.15 billion.

Hog production, worth $4.3 billion, represented 29.4% of Iowa’s total farm receipts.  Cattle and calves added $2.4 billion (16.6% of total state farm receipts), and dairy products added $629 million (4.3% of total state farm receipts).

Iowa’s ethanol plants produced approximately 333,000 tons of distillers grains in 2006, valued at about $29 million.  Income from feed coproducts is an essential contributor to the profitability of dry mill ethanol production.

Despite the growth of corn use for ethanol, livestock feeding is still the dominant use for U.S. corn.  It takes healthy demand from all three major use sectors – livestock feeding, processing, and exports – to achieve adequate disappearance, as the graph below illustrates.  Failure in any one use sector has historically resulted in excessive carryover stocks and depressed corn prices.

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