Corn finds new home as ‘green’ feed

A type of corn on its way to becoming obsolete is getting a lifeline as it could be a key to making the beef industry greener.

Swiss-based Syngenta Group’s Enogen seeds is a brand of corn used for ethanol production that seemed to be on its way out as biofuels demand took a dive during the pandemic.

But a recent study by the University of Arkansas Resiliency Center discovered that when fed to cattle, the corn improved efficiency in beef output by 5 percent.

For a thousand cattle, that means a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions equal to removing 35 cars from roads for a year, or sparing 50 football fields of feed crops in a year, the company said.

Enogen was introduced in Iowa around 2012, a Syngenta spokesman wrote in an email to The Gazette, and began being sold for feed in 2016.

Two hundred growers now use Enogen in Iowa, the spokesman wrote.

Enogen seeds may have phased out soon if it wasn’t for the unintentional find, said Justin Wolfe, Syngenta’s regional director of North America seeds.

The sustainability of ethanol “over time, I think, is a question,” he said.

Syngenta sees farmers pivoting away from ethanol production.

Biofuels and gasoline have seen demand setbacks as stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic kept cars off roads.

Longer term, improving battery technologies are boosting the outlook for electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, the beef industry has been battling criticism over its environmental footprint, especially because cattle emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Alternative meat companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have achieved stunning growth in recent years — partly won by demonizing beef as unsustainable.

Last year, half of Enogen seeds produced corn for the biofuels sector and the other half went into feed.

This year closer to two-thirds will be used for feed, and that could “easily” reach 90 percent in several years, Chris Cook, head of Enogen, said.

The research on Enogen is part of Syngenta’s $2 billion investment in reducing carbon emissions caused by agricultural operations, a plan announced last year.

The company is conducting similar research, feeding the corn to dairy cows.

Syngenta was acquired by China National Chemical in 2015.