By Dr. Jerry Shurson, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science and Dr. Brian Kerr, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service’s National Laboratory for Agriculture & the Environment in Ames, Iowa © 2019 Feedstuffs. Reprinted with permission from Vol. 91, No. 01, January 14, 2019 More than 90% of fuel ethanol plants in the U.S. are separating corn oil from thin stillage to produce distillers corn oil (DCO). In 2017, the U.S. ethanol industry produced about 3.6 billion lb. of DCO, with about half of this total being used to produce biodiesel and the other half marketed as a high-quality energy source for use in poultry and swine diets. The abundant supply of DCO, its high metabolizable energy (ME) content and relatively low price compared with other feed fats and oils make it an attractive energy source to use in commercial swine diets. The market price of DCO is closely related to the price of yellow grease in the U.S. market for fats and oils,
