January 18, 2012

Land O'Lakes Purina Feed has signed an agreement with Gevo, Inc, a renewable chemicals and advanced biofuels company for the sale of distillers grains from Gevo's isobutanol production facility at Luverne, Minnesota.

Land O'Lakes Purina Feed will be the exclusive marketer of Gevo's isobutanol dried and modified wet distillers grains for the animal feed market.

Further, the companies plan to work together to explore opportunities to upgrade the material for special value-added applications in feed markets.

"Corn is interesting as a feedstock because it has both protein and carbohydrates. Producing protein and animal feed from agriculture is extremely important, and selling the protein for feed, and using the excess carbohydrate for chemicals and fuels makes great sense given the fact that almost all of the nutritional value of corn can be captured in the animal feed product," said Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo.

"We are looking forward to working with Land O'Lakes Purina Feed, the country's leading brand and largest producer of animal feed, to establish a market for and explore ways to add nutritional value to our iDGs (isobutanol distillers grains)."

"When a partnership is developed between the technological expertise of Gevo and the research capabilities and customer networks of Land O'Lakes Purina Feed, it presents another opportunity to add value to grain farmers and livestock producers alike," said John Hany, director, direct ship merchandising and DDG marketing for Land O'Lakes Purina Feed. "We are very excited about our future together and the potential gains that may be had by all involved."

According to the USDA's Economic Research Service, one tonne of dried distillers grain can replace on average 1.22 tonnes of animal feed consisting of corn and soy meal in the USA.

Gevo's fermentation process converts only the carbohydrates (corn starch) into isobutanol while capturing 100% of the corn protein, the most valuable part, for animal nutrition. The feed value of the iDGs reduces Gevo's net carbohydrate costs.

Land O'Lakes, Inc. is a US-based, farmer-owned food and agricultural cooperative with 2010 sales of US$11 billion. It is US' second-largest cooperative and number 218 on the Fortune 500.