Hominy feed price

Hominy feed is an energy feed, fed for its digestible energy. On a dry-matter basis it runs about 11.5% crude protein and 90% TDN, roughly 0.95 Mcal of net energy for lactation per pound of dry matter, at about 90% dry matter as fed. Those figures come from University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension, Composition of Selected Livestock Feeds (FSA3043), from NRC Beef Cattle 1996 + Dairy One. Hominy feed. The leaderboard uses them to convert each USDA report week's board price into a cost per pound of protein and per pound of energy, so it can be ranked against corn and soybean meal. Prices are quoted per ton, and the cheapest board price is not the cheapest fed price once freight and moisture are counted (see the FOB-vs-delivered guide). Hominy feed is the bran, germ and leftover starch skimmed off when a dry corn mill makes grits, corn meal and corn flour for human food, so supply follows food-grade corn milling rather than the ethanol or wet-milling industries the other corn co-products come from. It runs close to corn in energy with more protein and fat, since the germ's oil comes along. That fat is the quirk buyers watch: hominy goes stale within weeks in a way whole corn does not, and the low-fat form gives up some of the energy. Cattle and hog feeders buy it mainly as a corn extender when it prices below corn.

Breakfast cereal and beer decide how much exists. The North American Millers' Association lists the dry corn milling industry's main products as degermed grits, corn meal, corn flour and corn bran, bound for breakfast cereals, snack foods, baked goods and beer. Hominy feed is what those mills have left over, so its volume answers to the grocery shelf and the brewhouse. A feed buyer's bid does not add a ton to that supply; a bigger grits order does.

Its price is argued against corn, nearly pound for pound. Alabama Cooperative Extension considers its feeding value equal to corn's and says to feed it much as you would corn grain. UF/IFAS Extension rates it about equal to corn in energy. K-State's swine specialists call it the corn co-product closest to corn in composition, with more starch and oil than any other. Corn is the benchmark it trades against: whenever USDA's quote is fresh, the hominy feed vs corn table on this page shows the gap, and what is hominy feed? sets hominy against corn on every weekly USDA report since 2022.

What a buyer gives up against corn is consistency. The product carries a fat floor: UF notes hominy feed must contain at least 4 percent fat, so every load brings the germ's oil along with the bran and starch. Beyond that, UF adds, it is variable in composition, and K-State finds cereal co-products in general more variable than grain in nutrient content and digestibility, which can limit how much a swine diet takes. A buyer pricing hominy against a bushel of number two corn is pricing that variability as well.

Cattle, hogs and poultry all compete for it. Alabama Extension and UF write about it for beef cattle. K-State counts it suitable as a partial corn replacement in swine diets, and Feedipedia rates it an excellent feed for pigs and poultry. It also arrives finely ground, which Alabama Extension notes makes it mix well with other ingredients. Because each of those rations can use it in corn's place, hominy has no niche buyer to fall back on: it wins a spot in the ration when it prices right against corn and loses it when it does not. The hominy feed guide covers the product itself.

Hominy feed vs corn. Hominy feed is close to corn in energy with more protein and fat, but Mississippi State University Extension notes its 6-percent-plus fat can soften pork fat and it goes stale within about a month, so it does not store like corn.