Current Internet Theory

[U_Stormcrow]

I have a head-high stack of feed bags in part of my barn. I change it up every few purchases. Different stores, different brands, different mills. Primarily my millage sources are going to be Purina, Southern States, and Central States, and my stores are going to be one of 2 Tractor Supplies, a local co-op, and 2 local feed stores, in 4 different towns.

Now something I don’t normally do is look at millage dates when I buy feed. I have a concern based on what I found tonight and my recollection, but I’m going to stop by my local TS tomorrow and look at some random bags before I speak to it.

If you find feed bags more than 8 mo old, none of us will be surprised. Its happened too many times, been reported too consistently over the years. Some of their warehouses seem to have really poor inventory management for perishables like feed. One of my local stores, too - but another does not. Not to say other chains are necessarily better - I just have no experience with them.

I don't buy feed at either. Or the other two in a 1 hour window from me. But I used to before I found a local feed store getting truckloads every week from the local mill.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I do always look at mill dates, because sometime feed is VERY old out there, and that's never good.
Long ago I didn't check mill dates either, and dumped feed into the garbage can rather than keeping it in it's bag from the mill. Didn't work out well...
Mary

That’s my concern. Two bags I checked tonight I thought was recent purchases have very old dates. For example, a Laena bag I’m pretty sure is only three so weeks old has a millage date of March 2022. I virtually never buy Laena, so its not that I have a bunch of them that could have been shuffled out of order. But… I cannot rule out that the Laena bag on top might actually represent the last time I bought Laena nearly a year ago, and I may have did otherwise with the new bag.

The second bag that I suspect would be a DuMOR bag I bought 2 days ago.

I’ll see what the TS has in terms of millage dates. If my last two bags I bought spread out by a few weeks and two different brands from the same store are in fact as old as I suspect, then the other bags there will probably be old too. If everything is fresh, then I must have simply mixed the order of the bags up.

 

[Folly's place]

I check every bag at the store, and will dig to the bottom of the stack to get fresh feed, or ask an employee to check what's in the back. And if necessary, I will buy something similar that's fresh enough.
Mary

 

[NanaK]

I check every bag at the store, and will dig to the bottom of the stack to get fresh feed, or ask an employee to check what's in the back. And if necessary, I will buy something similar that's fresh enough.
Mary

Exactly what I do.
I've seen feed at our TS that was 8 months old. The employee asked me if she cut it open to let me see it was alright and gave me 10% off would I be interested? I said nope. If you don't have anymore I'll go somewhere else. She got me some from the back room.

 

[3KillerBs]

I suppose that I'm lucky that my local feed store doesn't keep a lot of inventory -- occasionally having what I want unavailable so I have to substitute something else is probably worth the assurance that what the guys in the warehouse load into my trunk for me is reasonably fresh.

 

[Folly's place]

I quit buying from a local feed store, because they had to load feed into my car from their ware house. The last bags were six months old, and I returned them!
I do buy their shavings, better quality and better price than the stuff from TSC. Except for the time they got black walnut shavings, I didn't realize what was happening, and at least my mare 'only' had nasty dermatitis, not potentially fatal laminitis! I complained, they complained to their supplier, and it never happened again. Hope nobody else's critters suffered...
Mary

 

[Perris]

If you find feed bags more than 8 mo old, none of us will be surprised. Its happened too many times, been reported too consistently over the years. Some of their warehouses seem to have really poor inventory management for perishables like feed. One of my local stores, too - but another does not. Not to say other chains are necessarily better - I just have no experience with them.

I don't buy feed at either. Or the other two in a 1 hour window from me. But I used to before I found a local feed store getting truckloads every week from the local mill.

it would appear that collective experience has identified a plausible source and explanation for the phenomenon, experienced by many, that started all this. Is there a law against selling old and therefore nutritionally depleted feed? Or is it just buyer beware?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

it would appear that collective experience has identified a plausible source and explanation for the phenomenon, experienced by many, that started all this. Is there a law against selling old and therefore nutritionally depleted feed? Or is it just buyer beware?

Not really. It's mostly buyer beware, there is no expiration date on the bags. Plausibly, one could bring a DTPA -Deceptive Trade Practices Act claim (called different things in different states, but DTPA in most), but those are very generic statutes lacking clear remedies, and attorney costs often aren't recoverable. So it would most likely be brought as a class action instead, and settle for attorney fees and a new disclosure for consumers, maybe a few pennies on the dollar for people claiming they were harmed who could provide satisfactory proof.

It's an imperfect system

 

[indianaducks]

There's also just the fact that not all feed/brands are created equally or the same quality. I hate to bring up dog food as an example but its the same thing. Some are higher quality than others. Find a food your birds do well on and feed that. And if you feed the cheapest stuff you can find, when other factors change (such as winter, less daylight, colder weather, molting, etc) you might see a change in egg laying. I'd say its not rocket science, but it is apparently LOL. I say this with feed labels piled up on my desk next to my coffee this morning because I'm a data nerd and already do this sort of research for my dogs. Why not do it for my birds too.? I typically feed a variety, because yes some of the "cheaper" stuff is more affordable but I do think my birds do better on better food. But... not tinfoil hat stuff.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Unreal:

Multiple brands. Nothing was newer than October 2022. The oldest was February 2022. Most were June-August 2022.

I’ve likely been feeding my chickens year old feed for a long time.