And that is why I am trying to pretend I did not see that very evil post.
Of course it’s more complicated in Canada 
Legal weight for sale is in metric but many people still think in imperial.
Some feed companies make a bag that is a rounded off metric weight, and some make a bag that is a rounded off pound weight but then state the weight in kilos, and it is some odd number. These are all local mills.
When I do conversions on my calculator I find a bag can be anything between 40 and 55 lbs.
Then there can be a price difference of up to $2 on the same thing between different feed stores. So I am always figuring the price per pound in relation to convenient location and/or delivery fee.
The biggest bags do seem to have the lowest price per pound and I haven’t yet felt a huge difference between lifting 40 or 50 lbs. But then I don’t deal in that much volume of grain for one horse.
Have you not seen 40# bags in stores? Dog food, horse feed, alfalfa pellets, beet pulp, etc. They’ve been around for a few years at Tractor Supply, Murdoch’s etc
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Boy, have I gotten old! I remember when the earth shook because 5 cent candy bars became 10 cent candy bars. Absolutely outrageous. That’s when the 10 cent bar started shrinking, so they went to the skimpier 15 cent model and haven’t looked back. Have you looked at the “half gallon” Tropicana juice lately?
I’ll manage 50 lbs because I really do think that 40 lbs is a great way the companies can increase the price faster than they otherwise would. I board, but I have a good little 2 wheeler so I can get them into the grain room. I can always find a couple of kids around who can dump them in the bin.
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My preferred chicken feed comes in 40# and 25# bags. I actually usually pay the premium for the 25# one as the whole thing fits in the 25# feeder. If I get a 40# bag then I have to store the open bag AND, horror of horrors, when I use the remainder it doesn’t fill the feeder completely.
Yes I am lazy. Yes it is worth the extra couple of $ to me.
I’d take TC Sr in 40# bags if it was an option as the 50# bag doesn’t quite fit in the galvanized can that I store grain in. And since I feed a total of a quart a day, it takes more than a month to go through a 50# bag so having a bigger can doesn’t make sense. 
I think there would also be some additional labor in filling that extra bag and extra handling and shipping costs (a vehicle might cube out before it grossed out as the difference in size between a 40 and 50 pound bag would not be all that great.
Again I don’t know that it would be 20% but I’d bet money it would be a “something.”
G.
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Some of these bag size changes came about because of the workers comp insurance. The peeps at your feed store doing all the loading, hurting their backs, back when bags were routinely 80-100#. That’s what the feed store owner told me.
At any rate for now I’m okay with 50# bags but I’d sure like it if the HAY industry would go back to “girl bales”. :lol::lol::lol:
Our old cottonseed cowcake bags used to be burlap and 100#.
When we loaded our pickup they used to make fun of me, said all they could see coming out of the cakehouse was a big sack of cowcake walking on two feet.
Later years, they started putting those in 50# paper bags, a definite improvement that.
I can’t imagine what a 25# bag of horse feed would look.
Do they have a handle, so we can carry one on each hand, maybe?
I worked for two of the top ten animal nutrition companies as a salesperson. I can’t tell you the number of sales meetings I sat through where we argued to keep the 50 lb. bags. As salespeople, we knew that the price would not drop even if the size of the product sold did. We knew how smart our customers were and knew we’d be on the hook for explaining why the price increase, not necessarily the reduction in the size of the bag. The other argument we threw back at management was that these are horse people, it doesn’t matter if the majority of them are women. Slinging 50 lb. bags is not an issue for most horse owners.
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I was thrilled to find a hay supplier who actually knows what a 50 lb bale is. He said he doesn’t sell to many horsewomen because they want little 25-30 lb bales. I’m paying the same price for a lovely 50-55 lb bale of second crop alfalfa as I would for the little bales elsewhere (4.25 delivered).
As for grain, I really don’t see enough weight difference between 40 and 50. If 50 is too heavy, 40 really isn’t that much less. I’ve seen that with my dog food (I go through about 500 lbs a month)…my brand comes in both 40 and 50 lb bags and I really don’t feel much difference.
The rice bran I was feeding just switched to 40# bags. Feed store brought in a 50# bag supplier too, so will be interesting to see who wins that competition.
25-30# bales? Never ever ever in my entire life have I seen or heard of hay bales that small. OMG! Mini bales is what that is!! :lol::lol::lol:
I agree with @cutter99, slinging 50# bags (or hay bales) is not that big a deal to most horsewomen.
OTOH, I had 4 tons of 3-string grass hay (100#+) delivered last week and it has to be unloaded/stacked by hand. By the time they were done I think my hay guy was wishing for smaller bales too.
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Those little bales are what we call “kicker bales”. Usually baled loose and short, and supposedly a grass/alfalfa mix…but you’d have to look hard to find a single stem of alfalfa. But a lot of the small farmers will tell you they’re 45-50 lbs. Trust me, if I can pick up one in each hand and lift them to waist height, they aren’t 50 lbs. LOL!
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Not surprising given location–but I found the same thing when I was in Minnesota. They LOOKED about the right size, but you go to pick em up and whooosh! :lol: It’s like grabbing one of those styrofoam rocks :lol: :lol: :lol:
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