Kurt Rosentrater, an assistant professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, has been named the new executive director and chief executive officer of the Distiller Grains Council.

The council’s purpose is to promote and educate the agriculture community on the usage of distiller grains, a fairly new concept within the agriculture world.

Rosentrater grew up on a family farm in northwest Iowa, where he gained experience handling corn, soybeans, beef and swine. Later in life, the Rosentrater family sold out of livestock, but continued to farm crops.

Rosentrater had no idea what he wanted to do when he came to Iowa State. He knew he wanted to stay in agriculture, but it was not until his senior year of college he knew he wanted to be an agriculture engineer.

After leaving college, Rosentrater designed agricultural facilities, including grain mills. Rosentrater worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture for seven years prior to coming to Iowa State, and has been involved in distiller grains for nearly a decade.

Rosentrater teaches up to two courses every semester while working on his research.

“There is a lifetime of work,” Rosentrater said.

The benefit of researching and teaching is that the information may be taught and relayed more quickly.

Rosentrater worked with the council before he was nominated to be its CEO. The Distiller Grains Council was previously located in Louisville, Ky. before being relocated to Ames.

The idea of being CEO is still new to Rosentrater, but he believes that he will enjoy the new tasks at hand, and also be able to balance his new and current duties.

“Distiller grains are an untold story,” Rosentrater said. “A lot of people know about the corn side of things, but not about the biofuels.”

Distiller grains are essentially the corn without the starch. Distiller grains involve a process of fermentation, where yeast will eat the byproducts, not the minerals, and other nutrition.

The byproduct is created to be ethanol. Distiller grains are being used to feed livestock, and the byproduct is used to aid in new technology, such as fueling vehicles.

The council offers four to five scholarships each year to those who have been involved in distiller grains research. The scholarships are used to help promote the recipients’ research.

The council works with outreach programs as well as alongside the American Feed Association and the National Corn Association. The goal is to help producers understand the usage of distiller grains.

As the new CEO, Rosentrater hopes to promote the council through new sources such as social media. Rosentrater said social media is a growing factor and he would like to take advantage of that growth.

Rosentrater said he is honored to be the new executive director and CEO of the Distiller Grains Council. 

The Distiller Grains Council educates the community by holding an annual convention in May, and this year, the convention will be held in Dallas. It will consist of two speakers educating the best uses of distiller grains, while also covering quality control and improvement.