NC213: Marketing and Delivery of Quality Grains and BioProcess Coproducts
Statement of Issues and Justification
Statement of Issues and JustificationThe multi-state research project NC-213, Management of Grain Quality and Security in World Markets, will end its five-year cycle on September 30, 2008. At the February 2007 annual technical meeting, the NC-213 Research Committee developed its plan to rewrite the project for the next 5-year cycle.
NC-213s engineers, entomologists, plant pathologists, grain/food scientists and economists continue to investigate and address grain quality issues such as breakage of corn during handling and transport, stress cracking of corn during drying, development of instruments to measure grain quality attributes, and development of sensors to monitor grain quality. Other topics involve alternative technologies and practices to protect grain from insect and fungal pests and processing practices to insure the quality and safety of various end products. In addition, the group has expanded to look at quality management and assurance systems for identity preservation/traceability. This multi-state project provides an opportunity for team members and industry stakeholders to interact and collaborate on addressing specific engineering, scientific, and economic issues associated with project objectives.
Because of the industry endowment (provided by The Andersons, Inc.) that led to its formation, NC-213 has always had a very strong industry influence. The meetings are regularly attended by numerous industry representatives from grain handling, marketing and processing companies, allied service suppliers, and equipment manufacturers. Since 2000 there has been an industry advisory board consisting of five elected representatives with its chair serving on NC-213s executive committee. During the 2007 Annual Technical Meeting, a roundtable with five industry representatives discussed trends currently influencing the U.S. and global grain industries, and outlined research needs that NC-213 should address in its next 5-year project cycle. The emerging biofuels industry was the primary focus of the roundtable. The industry panel shared that the ethanol and biodiesel industry will have a significant impact on the future of the grain industry. Due to the domestic demand for corn, at least 30% more grain will be stored on U.S. farms and commercial facilities to provide feedstock to the biofuels industry. U.S. on-farm and commercial grain storage capacity is already well beyond 20 billion bushels. The consensus of the panel was that a principal challenge will be maintaining grain quality into the following summer months, which has not happened on a large scale in the U.S. since the 1980s. Additionally, the production of co-products from the ethanol process, specifically distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), will result in new handling, storage, transportation, marketing and utilization challenges. Together this will require new practices and technologies for monitoring and maintaining quality, new measurement systems to quantify quality attributes, and development of alternative economic models. After development of alternative systems, evaluating the efficacy of these new practices, technologies and models to support this growing industry while simultaneously maintaining high quality grain stocks for other food, feed and industrial uses needs to be performed.
In addition to quality, both crop yields and processing efficiency are primary concerns for the emerging biofuels industry. For example, increased corn production will lead to a higher percentage of corn-on-corn rotations that in turn will increase the occurrence of several pest species including mycotoxin producing fungi (e.g., Fusarium, Aspergillus spp). These fungi are known to affect quality, quantity, and ultimately the ability to produce sufficient quantities of grain for feed, fuel, and food. Developing new technologies to detect mycotoxins and reduce mycotoxin levels will be important. Economic models accounting for additional resources required to maintain crop quality over longer periods of time will be critical to the cereal and oilseed industry. Co-products such as DDGS must now be considered. The biofuels industry demands a high-quality corn feedstock with low grain damage and very low mycotoxin levels due to the importance of producing a high-value DDGS co-product along with ethanol and biodiesel. In addition, identification of grain types and agronomic practices that result in high raw material to fuel conversions during processing will be necessary to help ensure the industrys economic viability.
This project focuses on raw grain supply to and coproducts manufactured by the grain and biorefinery processing industries. Delivering low-cost, food-safe, bio-secure, and high quality cereals and oilseeds for food, feed, fuel, and industrial uses requires a systems approach. Therefore, the NC-213 objectives for the next 5-year cycle are revised to focus on three interrelated goals:
1. To characterize quality attributes and develop systems to measure quality of cereals, oilseeds, and bioprocess coproducts,
2. To develop methods to maintain quality, capture value, and preserve food safety at key points in the harvest to end product value chain,
3. To quantify and disseminate the impact of market-chain technologies on providing high value, food-safe, and bio-secure grains for global markets and bioprocess industries.
NC-213 will continue to have a significant impact on improving the efficiency of the U.S. grain industry and capturing value along the cereals, oilseeds and coproducts supply chains. Although NC-213 is not specifically focused on biofuels, the influence of biofuels on the U.S. grain industry cannot be overlooked. Therefore, NC-213 will address quality issues for food, feed, fuels, coproducts, and the emerging bioproducts industries. NC-213 will continue to have strong ties with industry. This multi-state project will use industry input and collaboration to ensure relevance and to aid in developing initiatives that can obtain extramural funding.
Back to Top