Feed sack woes

Why oh why can't someone invent a feed sack that is easy to open?

It never fails to be dark and cold as I fumble with the stitched end of a feed sack, trying to slice that stitching in just the right way to make it come zipping apart. That only happens a slim 10% of the time. The rest of the time is a struggle of tear inducing frustration as a task the should have taken mere seconds has turned into a slasher movie as I madly hack my way into the bag while screaming through gritted teeth. THe only positive side of this is that as my fingers freeze and become less nimble, I don't feel it as I slice myself to the bone with the poo covered utility knife we keep handy for this purpose. Is my tetanus shot current, I wonder, as I stick a bleeidng finger in my mouth. Nope, last tetanus shot I had was before my first birthday..wow, that's been one effective shot OR tetanus is not nearly the threat they'd like us to think it is.

I used to buy a certain brand of dog food not because it was good dog food or the dog liked it, but because some brilliant person had designed an easy, zip off top! Well what are the rest of those dimwits thinking? Gotta go, I see I am bleeding through this latest bandaid, but at least I got the lay pellets into the mangled, bear chewed container they are kept in. Polysporin, here I come!

Oh, I sooooooo get what you are saying. Every time I try and open them I end up in a temper tantrum, slashing away at the bag in anger. Yes, only about one in ten comes apart as it should. I keep meaning to ask the people at UFA to show me how to do it, but I always feel like I should know. I have found that using scissors and cutting from the inside actually works well but small bits of string end up in the bag sometimes. I once asked my landlord, a cattleman of over sixty years, and he promptly pulled a sharp little knife out of his pocket and made short work of it.
I have found the paper bags seem to work better than the weave one but maybe thats because I don't really care about the paper bags, so of course they work better.
Anyway, I am glad it isn't just me, misery loves company.

The feed sacks from Grindrod open fairly easily most of the time. You definitely don't want the repacks from our local feed store as they are almost impossible. To open the Sure Crop bags set the bag on something label side away from where you are standing. Cut the stitching hanging off to the left next to the bag. One of the two threads hanging loose will undo the stitching across the whole bag when pulled. Occasionally the thread or two will catch in a sewing loop but can be picked with the end of a knife to unravel the rest. From time to time a bag will need a visit from an insane slasher.

I have had feed sacks with a zip top! They are glorious!

I think I bought the feed in Wetaskiwin. A bit of a drive for you, Uno...

Sue

gave up years ago tring to make that thread unravel
now have a pair of scisors in the barn just for the
bags.
Or I get dear hubby to do it but I don't like to
watch cause he can get every bag open perfect and
that just pisses me off something awful.
So Uno just go to the dollar store and buy some
scisors for the barn.

The place I buy in Drayton Valley has a paper tab attached to the string and bold letters declaring: PULL STRING HERE! Works every time!

Maybe you should move to Alberta where things are simpler. This stinks of something the government has its hand in over there in BC.

Sue

Schipperkesue wrote:The place I buy in Drayton Valley has a paper tab attached to the string and bold letters declaring: PULL STRING HERE! Works every time!

Maybe you should move to Alberta where things are simpler. This stinks of something the government has its hand in over there in BC.

Sue

ba ha ha haha Sue you may be onto something.... just about blew wine out my nose reading that one!

Rosewood, you make it sound so easy! And yes, in a perfect world it should go the way you say, but I must live in the Bermuda Triangle of bag badness because it just NEVER goes as planned!

I have seen those bags with the little 'pull here' tabs. I LOVE them! Why can't they all be like that? I get my feed from Grindrod, as Rosewood mentioned. Perhaps some hate mail in local paper will get the ball rolling, or thread unravelling as the case may be. I will call my letter, "If Your Knickers are in a Knot, Just Cut Here and Pull."

Bags are easy to open if you flip it over and open from the bottom.
so tag side down.
lightly tug the strings open on the end with the shorter strings hanging ,do not just pull on the string till you have it unraveled.
Will open every time

if it is cold and im in a hurry I use a nail or whatever to help unravel.
I find it faster to open them than cut the bags.

The bags from Otter Coop say, "You otter open here"

Top Shelf Feeds on the Island also have the handy arrow.

Yes, great point AB, the tag is always at the bottom. I suppose some would think that was the top of the bag.

Also, our bags here have a thin strip of brown paper between the string and bag. If you pull the corner of the paper, it is much easier than working the string.

Well Uno I know you like to use the fibre bags for poo relocation, so I can't even suggest you just buy your feed elsewhere. I never buy those hard-to-open bags from SureCrop.

BriarwoodPoultry wrote:

Schipperkesue wrote:The place I buy in Drayton Valley has a paper tab attached to the string and bold letters declaring: PULL STRING HERE! Works every time!

Maybe you should move to Alberta where things are simpler. This stinks of something the government has its hand in over there in BC.

Sue

ba ha ha haha Sue you may be onto something.... just about blew wine out my nose reading that one!

Would that be BC wine that Albertans must pay 'import' duties to get into Alberta? Touche!

Sue

Me thinks there is no industry standard in bag construction. MY bags have the tag sewn to the TOP of the bag. The bottom of the bag is a rolled hem, like on your pant leg. THe topof the bag has the single line of stitching meant to be picked open (in some alternate dimension of reality). I might have better luck opening them from the bottom, never tried that. But as FarmChiq pointed out, we save and re-use our bags to haul horse manure for gardening friends. I would not trust that single stitched line to work as the bottom to keep poo in although it sure is darn effective at keeping lay pellets IN and me OUT.

We save our bags and use them to store potatoes, carrots and unused sewer pipe fittings. The feed store takes them back and occasionally reuses them by filling them from their tote bags. The two bags of barley we bought today were not stitched but tied with baler twine. If you think the feed mill bags are hard to open you should try the repacks from the store here- multiple stitch passes some of which did not go completely across.

They let you bring the sacks back????
wow,do they not know about Disease control.
I would be scared to bring those repacks home !

rosewood wrote:We save our bags and use them to store potatoes, carrots and unused sewer pipe fittings. The feed store takes them back and occasionally reuses them by filling them from their tote bags. The two bags of barley we bought today were not stitched but tied with baler twine. If you think the feed mill bags are hard to open you should try the repacks from the store here- multiple stitch passes some of which did not go completely across.

Hillbilly wrote: Yes, great point AB, the tag is always at the bottom. I suppose some would think that was the top of the bag.

Also, our bags here have a thin strip of brown paper between the string and bag. If you pull the corner of the paper, it is much easier than working the string.

I found the paper strip to be easier bags to open as well...but the feed company was almost $3 bucks a bag more.

rosewood wrote:The feed sacks from Grindrod open fairly easily most of the time. You definitely don't want the repacks from our local feed store as they are almost impossible. To open the Sure Crop bags set the bag on something label side away from where you are standing. Cut the stitching hanging off to the left next to the bag. One of the two threads hanging loose will undo the stitching across the whole bag when pulled. Occasionally the thread or two will catch in a sewing loop but can be picked with the end of a knife to unravel the rest. From time to time a bag will need a visit from an insane slasher.

Uno, I hear ya, most of the time (I always get Surecrop products, as they are just across the road), and cheaper, I cannot unzip the zip. I just cut with scissors the first threads and then pull the bag apart at the top where I just keep cutting each thread. Sigh. Yes, takes about 2 minutes to do a bag. The gal at Surecrop once showed me how to do it and whip, the thread unthreaded in a flash.

Rosweood, I am going to try the method you speak of, seems like it would work. I'll let ya'll know, it is a pain in the butt.

I also like the idea of turning the bag upside side down, but if I can mast the method Rosewood speaks of, I'll do that, easier, kind of. It is a pain my butt too!! But I don't like the little pieces of plastic that come when I hack the top open with scissors or a knife, so hopefully this will take less time now. Yay, solutions. Beautiful days, CynthiaM.

I am also surprised at Rosewood saying they take bags back. To SureCrop? Maybe they let you bring your own bags along and refill them and take your own bags back home with you?

I called SureCrop this year wondering if I could buy used bags and the lady laguhed at me and said no used bags were allowed on site, but I could certainly buy new bags, at 50 cents a piece. I'm thinking at least THOSE won't be sewn shut!

The bags are probably just being used by the feedstore. We are careful with the bags here and only return ones in good condition and clean.

Well, sorry to burst the bubble about opening surecrop bags as you said, Rosewood. Maybe I'm still not doing it right....I got two bags, one layer pellets second grower pellets. Tried both bags with the tag away from me, nope, had to cut the strings as I usually do, by pulling one side of the bag and cutting the centre string as I pull on the other side, takes at least 2 minutes. Didn't work, I have found about 1 in 50 I could get right and they do pull nicely all along zipping. Next time I am going to try the bag upside down and see if I get any further. I recall back on the coast the co-op sold bags that had the tab and the strings. never once had a problem, grab the right tag, pull on it and zip, off it comes and clean and open bag in about 2 seconds. Those were the bags made of paper, really thick paper, also worked really good for transporting birds as any bird dropping that got on it would absorb (not the birds in the bag, the birds on the bag, smiling). Beautiful days, CynthiaM.

Hillbilly wrote: The bags from Otter Coop say, "You otter open here"

Top Shelf Feeds on the Island also have the handy arrow.

I get otter coop feeds too, and after many years,the slogan still makes me giggle every time I read it!

crazybarnlady wrote:

Hillbilly wrote: The bags from Otter Coop say, "You otter open here"

Top Shelf Feeds on the Island also have the handy arrow.

I get otter coop feeds too, and after many years,the slogan still makes me giggle every time I read it!

I don't like the old new bags at top shelf, no arrow, different (ugly) colors (throws off the fung shuei of the coop) and I'm a putz and seem to rip a bag every load. Gr.

I am with you ladies on the surecrop bags! They suck! A pair of scissors live in the grain room for ease of opening. At least the horse grain I get from sure crop is a propper zip top! A little break at least

Speaking of surecrop...road trip next week...blah....stock up for a few months anyways!

I don't know why so many of you are having a problem with getting these bags open. I sometimes have to pick out a few stitches with a utility knife, but eventually will find the thread that zips open the bag. The odd bag has to be opened by cutting the threads in the middle.