USDA: Corn use in fuel ethanol production down in December

The USDA recently released its Grain Crushings and Co-Products Production report for February, reporting that corn use for fuel ethanol production in December was down from both the previous month and December 2021.

Total corn consumed for alcohol and other uses was 474 million bushels in December, down 5 percent from November and down 11 percent from December of the previous year. Usage included 91.9 percent for alcohol and 8.1 percent for other purposes.

Corn consumed for fuel alcohol was at 425 million bushels in December, down 6 percent when compared to the previous month and down 11 percent from December 2021. Corn consumed for dry milling fuel production and wet milling fuel production was 92 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

The USDA did not disclose the volume of sorghum consumed for fuel alcohol production in December to avoid disclosing data for individual operations.

At dry mills, condensed distillers solubles production was at 96,964 tons, down from 98,182 tons in November, but up from 94,168 tons in December of the previous year. Corn oil production fell to 174,416 tons, down from 186,644 tons the previous month and 194,497 tons in December 2021. Distillers dried grains production fell to 317,504, down from both 381,114 tons in November and 383,196 tons in December 2021. Distillers dried grains with solubles production fell to 1.68 million tons, down from 1.78 million tons the previous month and 2.07 million tons in December of the previous year. Distillers wet grains production fell to 1.36 million tons, down from both 1.46 million tons in November and 1.42 million tons in December 2021. Modified distillers wet grains production expanded to 576,406 tons, up from both 558,128 tons in November and 546,625 tons in December of the previous year.

At wet mills, corn germ meal production fell to 48,546 tons, down from both 53,861 tons in November and 63,314 tons in December of the previous year. Corn gluten feed production fell to 252,788 tons, down from 277,379 tons the previous month and 285,387 tons in December 2021. Corn gluten meal production was at 99,585 tons, down from 112,372 tons in November and 107,003 tons in December of the previous year. Wet corn gluten feed production declined to 188,584 tons, down from 203,891 tons the previous month and 214,346 tons in December 2021.

Carbon dioxide captured at wet and dry mills reached 213,799 tons in December, down from 227,042 tons in November and 251,666 tons in December 2021.