Corn is the cereal grain most widely used as an energy feedstuff for livestock. It has been traditionally a quite homogeneous, energy-dense feed ingredient with carbohydrates having the largest impact on its digestible energy. The reduction on the dependence on foreign oil enacted through the Energy Policy Act of 2005 led to the development of new hybrids, changing corn yield and composition with more bushels per acre and more starch per bushel. Despite this, corn is still sold exclusively by weight and and/or volume
While some research has shown US corn to have more starch than that from other origins, it has not been quantified if these differences merit a differential price per ton. To assess this the nutrient composition of corn from three different origins was analyzed with special emphasis on energy.
Corn shipments from Argentina, Brazil, and the US were sampled during 2020 at the destination ports of Mexico, Colombia, Japan, Vietnam, and Taiwan. Five sub-samples were obtained from different locations of the container directly from augers or belt throwers. Sub-samples were then composited into one sample identifying date, vessel, country of origin, and destination. Samples were then analyzed for broken corn and foreign material (BCFM), and mycotoxins.
Nutrient analyses included dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), acid detergent insoluble crude protein (ADICP), soluble protein (SP), prolamin (PRO), vitreousness (VIT), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), Starch (STA), ethanol soluble carbohydrates (ESC), water soluble carbohydrates (WSC), ether extract (EE), total fatty acids (TFA), non-fibrous carbohydrates (NFC), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and total digestible nutrients (TDN), and net energies (NE) of lactation, maintenance, and gain (NEL, NEm, and NEg, respectively). A total of 75 samples were analyzed, 25 from each of the three countries.
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