Purina Mill Date?

[barred2rock]

I picked up a bag of Purina feed, the date stamp on the bottom says Aug 15. I was thinking I was getting a relatively fresh bag, but then I thought maybe that's August 2015? If it is that old wouldn't I be able to tell by the feed's smell?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

That should be the day it was milled with the assumption it is the current year.

Each company stamps their tags differently. Usually you'll see Lot number, then year, month, day.

Many companies just give the last digit of the year. For example if feed were milled today, the number would be 7Sept01.

Some companies use the Julian system, so literally the day out of 365 it was milled.

So I would assume, like you, that August 15 means milled this August 15th.

If it smells funny, it could be an off batch, which can happen. Your feed store should be willing to take it back in exchange for a different bag. Just check that it is a different lot number as well.

LofMc

 

[debid]

It's month and day for Purina. I find their dates to be easy to read but was having so much trouble with getting fresh feed that I never got to use my $2 coupons in the six months I had them! I quit trying since re-visiting the local mill. Their stuff is always fresh.

At any rate, they are supposed to pull feed at six months past the date. And, although I have personally witnessed feed a couple months past that, I haven't yet seen anything nearing a year old.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I picked up a bag of Purina feed, the date stamp on the bottom says Aug 15. I was thinking I was getting a relatively fresh bag, but then I thought maybe that's August 2015? If it is that old wouldn't I be able to tell by the feed's smell?

This is a recent bag of Purina. . 7 is the year, 03 the day. GC

 

[barred2rock]

It's month and day for Purina. I find their dates to be easy to read but was having so much trouble with getting fresh feed that I never got to use my $2 coupons in the six months I had them! I quit trying since re-visiting the local mill. Their stuff is always fresh.

At any rate, they are supposed to pull feed at six months past the date. And, although I have personally witnessed feed a couple months past that, I haven't yet seen anything nearing a year old.

The first bag of feed I got at TSC, before I knew better was 11 months old. Seems the only relatively fresh feed is layer. The flock raiser seems to always be 3 months or older. Got the lower protein layer this time because it's fresher, supposing I'm reading the date correctly. The bag only has "Aug 15 Denver" and what looks like an unreadable lot number.

ETA: All the bags of this feed were marked the same.

 

[Purina]

I picked up a bag of Purina feed, the date stamp on the bottom says Aug 15. I was thinking I was getting a relatively fresh bag, but then I thought maybe that's August 2015? If it is that old wouldn't I be able to tell by the feed's smell?

Great question! Most of our products will have the year first which would be 7 for 2017. Typically, they are Year/Month/Day/Plant/Shift. However, the organic poultry products will be different since they are from another manufacturer. So for most plants the letters are 3 digits. For example, today something out of Frankfort, IN made during the second shift would be labeled 7AUG28FRF2.

 

[SueT]

I was delighted to find a bag of Putina Flock Raiser yesterday with Aug 23rd date! Barely over a week old.
I had walked out of a TSC the day before because theirs was over 3 mo old. I only have 9 chickens and it takes a while to use up 50 lbs....and it starts to get stale and funky after a while, even moldy. They definitely can taste the difference between old and fresh feed and went crazy for the new batch.

 

[barred2rock]

Great question! Most of our products will have the year first which would be 7 for 2017. Typically, they are Year/Month/Day/Plant/Shift. However, the organic poultry products will be different since they are from another manufacturer. So for most plants the letters are 3 digits. For example, today something out of Frankfort, IN made during the second shift would be labeled 7AUG28FRF2.

Just checked the old bag, no year on it either. There's a small smug where it should be. Maybe you can contact the Denver plant and get them to fix their date stamp?

 

[debid]

I was delighted to find a bag of Putina Flock Raiser yesterday with Aug 23rd date! Barely over a week old.
I had walked out of a TSC the View attachment 1128652 day before because theirs was over 3 mo old. I only have 9 chickens and it takes a while to use up 50 lbs....and it starts to get stale and funky after a while, even moldy. They definitely can taste the difference between old and fresh feed and went crazy for the new batch.

They can definitely tell. When someone complains that they bought some expensive organic feed and their chickens turned up their beaks, that's my first question -- what's the date? Fewer people buy the more expensive stuff so it tends to sit longer. This was the problem I had at TSC -- they turn over their store brand much more quickly so the Flockraiser was often stale.

 

[Purina]

Just checked the old bag, no year on it either. There's a small smug where it should be. Maybe you can contact the Denver plant and get them to fix their date stamp?

Thanks for the feedback barred2rock, we'll look into it with our team. Do you have a photo of the stamp you could send us for reference? Thank you!