ND Department of Agriculture Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 6, 2008

LIVESTOCK FEED TASK FORCE TO MEET

BISMARCK – The Livestock Feed Initiative Task Force will meet at 11 a.m., Wednesday, March 12, at the Chieftain Inn, 60 4th Ave S., in Carrington.

“With the large increase in ag processing plants in the state, it is important to find strong markets for the feedstuffs produced at these facilities,” said Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. “We have asked interested ag processors and feed manufacturers to provide input to the task force on how this market can be developed.”

Johnson, who established the task force in 2007, said North Dakota produced 117,000 tons of dried distillers grains in 2006.

“That number will increase 16-fold to 1.8 million tons when current and proposed projects are on line,” he said. “The income from feed co-products will help sustain processing plant operations especially during tough times like those experienced recently by the ethanol industry.”

Johnson said the state also produces significant quantities of barley malt pellets, bean splits, beet pulp and molasses, canola meal, corn gluten feed/meal, distillers grain, soybean hulls, soybean meal, sunflower meal, and wheat midds.
Task force members include Niles Hushka and Mark Luther, Kadrmas, Lee, and Jackson; Vern Anderson, North Dakota State University Carrington Research Center; Kim Koch, Northern Crops Institute: Al Christianson, Great River Energy; John Sandbakken, National Sunflower Association; Randy Schneider, North Dakota Ethanol Producers Association; Deb Johnson, North Dakota Soybean Council; Barry Coleman, Northern Canola Growers Association; Larry White, Northern Pulse Growers Association; Neal Fisher, North Dakota Wheat Commission; Dawn Watson, U.S. Durum Growers Association; Dan Wogsland, North Dakota Grain Growers Association; Nick Sinner, Red River Valley Sugar Beet Growers Association; Dave Polries, Dakota Dry Bean; Lance Gaebe, office of the Governor, and Shane Goettle, North Dakota Commerce Department.

More information is available by contacting Chuck Fleming, North Dakota Department of Agriculture marketing coordinator, at (701) 328-4759 or cfleming@nd.gov.

-30-

MEDIA: For more information, please call Ted Quanrud at (701) 328-2233 or tquanrud@nd.gov or Patrice Lahlum at (701) 239-7210 or plahlum@nd.gov.