The Ration US feedstuffs, weekly

Reference

Glossary

The terms the brief uses, defined the way the feed trade says them.

DDGS (Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles)
The corn that is left after an ethanol plant ferments off the starch, dried for shipping and shelf life. It is a mid-protein, high-energy feedstuff, roughly 29 to 30 percent crude protein on a dry-matter basis, fed widely to dairy, feedlot and hog rations. It is this wire's headline ingredient.
Solubles
The syrup fraction of the distillers stream (the dissolved and fine-suspended material) that is added back onto the grains before drying. Grains WITH solubles are DDGS; the solubles are why DDGS carries more energy than distillers grains alone.
WDGS (Wet Distillers Grains with Solubles)
The same distillers co-product sold wet, around 30 to 35 percent dry matter, straight from the plant. It is cheaper per ton but mostly water, so it only pays inside a short haul radius. This wire prices it but does not score it on the leaderboard, because its wet dry-matter basis is not the verified dry coefficient.
Crude protein (CP)
The protein content of a feed, measured as nitrogen times 6.25, expressed as a percent of dry matter here. Crude protein is the axis the leaderboard ranks the protein feeds on: cost per pound of crude protein.
TDN (Total Digestible Nutrients)
The standard energy measure for beef and growing cattle, a percent of dry matter that sums the digestible energy fractions. Higher TDN is more energy per pound. The leaderboard ranks energy feeds on cost per pound of TDN.
Net energy for lactation (NEl)
The dairy energy metric, in megacalories per pound of dry matter, the energy a lactating cow actually captures. Where a primary source publishes it, this site shows a cost per megacalorie of NEl alongside the TDN read. Some feedstuffs carry no NRC-published NEl, so they are ranked on TDN only.
Dry-matter basis
Comparing feeds after their water is removed. A ration is balanced on dry matter, so the leaderboard converts every as-fed board price to a cost per ton of dry matter first. This is why a cheap wet feed is not automatically a cheap fed feed: you pay for the water once and it carries no nutrient.
FOB plant vs delivered
Where a price is quoted. FOB plant is at the plant gate, before freight. Delivered is at the mill or farm, freight in. The same ton of feed carries a higher delivered price the further it hauls, so this site labels every price with its basis and never compares an FOB quote to a delivered one as if they were the same number.
Basis
In the feedstuffs reports, basis has two meanings. It is the FOB-versus-delivered freight point above. It is also, on some lines, a price quoted as cents over or under a futures month rather than a flat number; USDA resolves those to a dollar range, which is what this site stores.
Corn + soybean-meal benchmark
The two commodities every feedstuff is priced against: corn as the energy anchor, soybean meal as the protein anchor. A nutritionist asks whether a feedstuff beats corn on cost per unit of energy or soybean meal on cost per unit of protein. That comparison is the leaderboard.
Substitution leaderboard
This site's flagship. Every feedstuff ranked by its cost per pound of protein and per pound of energy on a dry-matter basis, against corn and soybean meal. A feed under 100 percent of soybean meal on protein, or under 100 percent of corn on energy, is delivering that nutrient cheaper than the benchmark this week.
Feedstuffs report
The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service weekly reports this wire reads: the Grain and Oilseed Processor Feedstuff report, the Mill-Feeds and Miscellaneous Feedstuff report, the Animal By-Product Feedstuff report, and the Grain Co-Products report. Together they price the feedstuffs by region and basis.
Corn gluten feed vs meal
Two different corn-milling feedstuffs. Gluten FEED is the bran and steep, mid-protein and mid-energy. Gluten MEAL is the concentrated protein fraction, around 60 percent crude protein and priced far higher. They are not interchangeable and this site keys them separately.