Scientists looking for new uses of ethanol byproducts have discovered that distillers dried grains (DDGs) have potential as an environmentally friendly herbicide or as a fertilizer, or perhaps both. DDGs are produced when corn is converted into ethanol. In the Midwest, ethanol producers generate about 10 million tons of DDGs annually, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farmers buy most of it for about $80 a ton and feed it to cows and other ruminants, but the increasing production of ethanol might create a DDG surplus. Dr. Rick Boydston, agronomist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Prosser, Washington, […]