‘More realistic’ gauge

But there’s a key point to consider: Not all of the 42 percent of the corn crop sent to ethanol plants for production ends up as fuel.

“That’s what I call a gross number,” said Wallace Tyner, an agricultural economics professor at Purdue University. “That’s what goes into the ethanol plant, but a third of that comes out of the ethanol plant as ethanol feed called distiller dried grains with solubles.”

About two-thirds of a corn kernel is starch, which is removed at plants to make ethanol. The remaining portion has a protein-rich compound of distiller grains and solubles that is sold as livestock feed.

Tyner said when taking into account that live- stock feed yield, about 27 percent of the nation’s corn crop is going to produce ethanol. Using the gross number, he said, is “misleading.”

Estimates vary on the net amount of the corn crop that goes to ethanol after taking into account the distiller grains byproduct.

Richard Wisner, a professor emeritus of agricultural economics at Iowa State University, estimated that after taking into account that byproduct, about 32 percent of the 2012-2013 crop is projected to go to ethanol.

Using the gross figures as Goodlatte did is a common way of looking at how much corn is used for ethanol, said Wisner, a biofuels economist at the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center, which is partly funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Still, Wisner said, the net figure of 32 percent is a “more realistic” gauge of the how much corn is going to ethanol.

Our ruling

Goodlatte said 42 percent of the nation’s corn crop is being used to manufacture ethanol, more than the amount of corn used to feed livestock.

Goodlatte’s statement is based on commonly cited raw figures from the Agriculture Department.

But the tallies don’t take into account that a portion of the corn used in ethanol production still ends up in feed troughs as dried distiller grains. When that corn byproduct is taken into account, contrary to Goodlatte’s claim, the amount used for feed easily outpaces the amount that ends up as ethanol.

So Goodlatte’s statement is based on accurate raw numbers but omits key information that disproves his conclusion that more corn goes to ethanol than livestock feed. On the whole, we rate his statement Half True.