12 Quantifying feed ingredient consumption for U.S. livestock, poultry and aquaculture.

Abstract In February 2025, the Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER) published the 2023 Feed Ingredient Consumption Report for U.S. livestock, poultry and aquaculture. The effort was in collaboration with the American Feed Industry Association and the North American Renders Association. The objective of this presentation is to convey study findings relative to over 70 ingredients as consumed by beef and dairy cattle, broilers, layers, turkeys, hogs, sheep and goats, horses and aquaculture in the U.S. Using a multi-species ration cost optimization model, animal inventories, ingredient production trends and input from nutrition experts around the U.S., it was estimated that for the 551 million tons of total consumption, 48 percent consisted of forages and roughages. Absent forages and roughages, 70 percent of the remaining ingredients were corn-related followed by 14 percent soy-related. The top five ingredients included corn, soybean meal, corn distillers’ dried grains (DDGs), wheat middlings, and canola meal. Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, North Carolina and Kansas were the top five ingredient consuming states. Iowa led the way at 29.1 million tons supporting primarily hogs, beef cattle and egg-layers. Feed ingredient consumption is influenced by farm commodities production, utilization of grains and oilseeds, utilization of rendered coproducts, animal production inventories and feed mill locations. All of these factors are evaluated within the report. For example, there have been notable increases in the amount of total oilseed meals fed to livestock and poultry. Oilseed meals have increased in total consumption over the last nearly 33 years, but the dominance of soybean meal in animal diets in relation to other oilseed meals has decreased. Other oilseed meals, such as canola meal (or rapeseed meal), have gradually taken up more of total consumption since 1990. Canola meal consumption, for example, increased between 1991 and 2023. Soybean meal consumption has also increased during the same period. This is due to the increased availability (thus decreased price) as well as the increasing awareness of the protein value of oilseed meals as a feed additive, primarily for beef cattle, dairy cows and pigs Used by the feed industry to evaluate trends, the feed ingredient consumption report is a comprehensive assessment made available to all stakeholders. The data demonstrates the vital role that feed mills, ingredient suppliers, liquid feed manufacturers, renderers and row crop farmers play in keeping animals fed throughout their lives, which, in turn, provides Americans with nutritious meat, milk and eggs.