The substitution method
How to compare feed ingredients on protein and energy
Compare feed ingredients on what a pound of protein or energy costs, not on the price per ton. On the Oct 19, 2026 USDA board corn, wheat middlings and sunflower meal sold within $4 a ton of each other, yet protein cost $0.935, $0.490 and $0.275 a pound in them.
Updated Oct 30, 2026
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Compare feed ingredients on what a pound of protein or a pound of energy costs, not on the price per ton. On the Oct 19, 2026 USDA board, corn ($156), wheat middlings ($159) and sunflower meal ($160) sold within $4 a ton of each other, yet a pound of crude protein cost $0.935, $0.490 and $0.275 in them, and a pound of energy (TDN) $0.101, $0.113 and $0.154. Same price, three different feeds.
Why the price per ton misleads
A per-ton price hides two things. The first is water: a ton of wet distillers grains is mostly water, which is why it sold for $60 a ton on Oct 19, 2026 against $188 for dried distillers grains. The second is what the dry matter is made of. A ton of cottonseed hulls cost $530 that week, more than soybean meal, and its protein cost $4.35 a pound, because hulls are bought for fiber, not protein. Strip out the water and price the nutrient, and feeds that look nothing alike line up on one scale.
The two divisions
Take wheat middlings on the Oct 19, 2026 board, $158.75 a ton (the page rounds to $159).
- Put the price on a dry-matter basis. Middlings are 89 percent dry matter, so $158.75 / 0.89 = $178 per ton of dry matter.
- Divide by the pounds of nutrient in a ton of dry matter, which is 2,000 times the nutrient's percent. At 18.2 percent crude protein that is 364 pounds, so protein costs $178 / 364 = $0.490 a pound. At 79 percent TDN it is 1,580 pounds of energy, so energy costs $0.113 a pound.
The percentages are book values from named extension and NRC tables, listed on the methodology page. A lab analysis of the actual load beats any book value; DDGS samples alone range from 25 to 34 percent protein. The feed cost-per-nutrient calculator runs the same two divisions on your own price and analysis.
One week, ranked three ways
| Rank | Per ton | Per pound of crude protein | Per pound of energy (TDN) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rice bran, $138 | Sunflower meal, $0.275 | Corn, $0.101 |
| 2 | Wheat millrun, $155 | Feather meal, $0.309 | Rice bran, $0.110 |
| 3 | Corn, $156 | DDGS, $0.355 | Wheat middlings, $0.113 |
| 4 | Wheat middlings, $159 | Linseed meal, $0.365 | Wheat millrun, $0.115 |
| 5 | Sunflower meal, $160 | Meat and bone meal, $0.377 | DDGS, $0.119 |
Source: USDA AMS weekly feedstuffs and Grain Co-Products reports for the week of Oct 19, 2026, as published on this board. Cost per pound uses the board's book dry matter, crude protein and TDN values (see the methodology page).
No feed makes the top five in all three columns, and none leads more than one. Rice bran was the cheapest ton on the board and the second-cheapest energy, but a dear protein. Sunflower meal was the cheapest protein by a wide margin and an expensive energy. Corn was the cheapest energy and nearly the most expensive protein.
How often the cheapest ton is the wrong buy
Across all 236 weekly reports from Feb 7, 2022 through Oct 19, 2026, the cheapest feed per ton was not the cheapest per pound of crude protein in 220 of them, and not the cheapest per pound of energy in 130.
- Cheapest per ton: wheat middlings in 134 reports, hominy feed 37, soybean hulls 32, rice bran 17, sunflower meal 16.
- Cheapest per pound of protein: meat and bone meal in 83, sunflower meal 78, feather meal 73, DDGS 2.
- Cheapest per pound of energy: hominy feed in 157, wheat middlings 67, soybean hulls 7, corn 5 (corn is on the board from Jul 25, 2022).
In no week did one feed lead all three lists. A buyer who shops the per-ton column is, most weeks, buying the wrong thing cheaply.
The benchmarks
A cost per pound needs a yardstick. The trade's are corn for energy and soybean meal for protein, and the leaderboard above states every feed's protein cost as a share of soybean meal's: below 100 percent, it bought protein for less that week. Feeds that bring both nutrients can also be priced against the corn and soybean meal it would take to replace them, a method the corn and soybean meal benchmark guide works through.
- Corn (energy anchor)
- Soybean meal (protein anchor)
- DDGS
What the arithmetic leaves out
A cost per pound of crude protein treats every pound alike, and they are not. Sunflower meal's cheap protein is short on lysine, which the sunflower meal vs soybean meal guide prices separately. Hulls buy fiber the ration needs and this math scores as worthless. Freight is outside a FOB plant price, and FOB plant vs delivered shows how much it can add. Inclusion limits, palatability and handling decide the rest. The ranking says which feed is cheap for a job; a nutritionist decides whether the ration can use it.
The latest USDA week
Corn was $152 per ton ($4.26 a bushel) as of Oct 26, 2026 (national corn benchmark, plant input cost, USDA), or $0.098 per pound of TDN. Soybean meal was $352 per ton as of Oct 26, 2026 (national median across 5 FOB plant regions, USDA), or $0.369 per pound of crude protein. DDGS was 96% of soybean meal's cost per pound of protein and 121% of corn's cost per pound of energy.
The Ration ranks the board on cost per unit of nutrient and shows the values it uses. It does not tell a reader what to feed.
Try it
The math, step by step. Dry-matter price = price per ton ÷ (dry matter % ÷ 100). Cost per pound of crude protein = dry-matter price ÷ (2,000 lb × crude protein % ÷ 100). Cost per pound of TDN is the same with the TDN percent. Cost per Mcal of net energy = dry-matter price ÷ (2,000 lb × net energy in Mcal per pound). This is exactly the calculation the site's nutrient-cost screening board runs on the USDA board price; here you run it on your own quote and your own lab analysis. It prices a nutrient; it does not tell you what to feed.
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Now look at the live data
Common questions
How do you compare feed ingredients on price?
Convert each feed's price to a cost per pound of crude protein and per pound of energy (TDN) on a dry-matter basis, then rank the results against soybean meal for protein and corn for energy. The price per ton alone hides water and nutrient density.
How do you calculate cost per pound of protein in a feed?
Divide the as-fed price by the dry-matter fraction, then divide by the pounds of protein in a ton of dry matter (2,000 times the protein percent). Wheat middlings at $158.75 a ton on Oct 19, 2026, 89 percent dry matter and 18.2 percent protein, came to $0.490 a pound.
Is DDGS a better value than corn?
Usually on protein, rarely on energy. From Feb 7, 2022 through Oct 19, 2026 DDGS bought crude protein for less than soybean meal in 179 of 236 weekly reports, but energy for less than corn in only 68 of 212. On Oct 19, 2026 it cost 118 percent of corn per pound of TDN.
Why is dollars per ton not enough to compare feeds?
Because a ton of a wet or fibrous feed carries far less protein or energy than a ton of a dense one. On Oct 19, 2026 corn, wheat middlings and sunflower meal were within $4 a ton of each other, while their protein cost ranged from $0.275 to $0.935 a pound.
What is the benchmark for feed value?
Corn for energy and soybean meal for protein. A feed that delivers a nutrient for less than those two is beating the benchmark in that USDA report week.