Corn as Feed

What goes into livestock feed 

Even as other industry demands grow, feeding livestock remains the number one use for American corn, as it has for decades. In 2008, South Dakota growers raised more than 585 million bushels of corn. And about 89 million of those bushels—15 percent of the total—were fed to livestock.

Meaning South Dakota’s cattle producers, pork producers and dairy operations are among our best customers.

Corn-fed animals—we’re talking about beef cattle and hogs in particular—gain weight quickly from this high-starch, high-energy food. In fact, concentrated animal feedlot operators prefer corn feed and economical distillers dried grain for accelerated growth and easy, year-round production. And the result: the tasty, marbled meat American consumers love at a price they can afford.

Corn also improves yield from dairy cows and reduces the land needed to support feed requirements.
 

And what we get out of it

If we had taken 87 million bushels of South Dakota corn and sold it all on the 2008 grain market, the return would have been about $313 million. But by feeding those bushels to the state’s 3.7 million beef and dairy cattle and 1.3 million hogs, we helped create $3.6 billion in livestock value—a number that doesn’t include the value added to the millions of corn-fed chickens and turkeys in South Dakota. And you don’t have to be a math whiz to realize what a great return on investment that was. 

South Dakota Corn supports Ag United for South Dakota, a nonprofit group dedicated to keeping our state’s 31,300 family farms and ranches growing strong. It’s just one of the ways we’re working to keep our state livestock industry healthy and maintain our number one market for corn.