The U.S. Grains Council recently sponsored a Colombian delegation to visit South Dakota State University to engage with SDSU Extension Dairy Specialists.
"Our state was selected to host because past SDSU Extension activities in Colombia led to the imports of 5,000-metric tons of distillers' grains from a local ethanol company," said Alvaro Garcia, SDSU Extension Agriculture & Natural Resources Program Director. "The Colombian dairy industry is a key sector whose adoption of DDGS could eventually lead to an expansion of South Dakota DDGS use in the Colombian poultry and swine sectors."
Garcia added that if the Colombian co-product market becomes fully developed, Colombia has the potential to increase annual imports of U.S. co-products by 800 percent.
The delegation which U.S. Grains Council and SDSU Extension co-hosted with South Dakota Corn Utilization Council, and South Dakota Farm Bureau, was comprised of two nutritionists, a Latin American U.S. Grains Council Regional Consultant, four dairy farmers, a feed manufacturer and an agricultural journalist.
During the week-long visit, the delegates learned about how to supplement grazing-based systems with feed concentrates to maximize milk production; they completed a short course on Dairy Management on the campus of SDSU; toured a local ethanol plant; and visited the SDSU Dairy Science Department Manufacturing Plant as well as toured four South Dakota dairies.
This is not the first delegation to visit SDSU and SDSU Extension. Over the years Garcia says SDSU Extension has hosted several international delegations. Through workshops and field tours of local agricultural operations, SDSU Extension has been instrumental in promoting technology transfer to Latin American livestock producers.
"In the last couple of years joint efforts between U.S. Grains Council and SDSU Extension have allowed South Dakota agribusiness to sell in excess of $20 million to Peru and Uruguay," Garcia said.
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