Distillers grains are the byproduct of distillation and fuel ethanol production. They have a long history of being fed to livestock. The tremendous growth of the ethanol industry in the past 20 years has greatly increased the supply of distillers grains to be used as a feedstuff.

Since other feedstuffs are typically priced to reflect the corn and soybean market, the cost of almost all feed ingredients has increased. Since feed is the largest single cost in producing milk, most producers review their feeding program to see if there are ways to reduce these costs. Any changes made to rations should only occur after a thorough review of the feeding program and must take into account the impact a change could have on other aspects of the overall operation.