high demand and long length of pieces; due to the shorter length and much lower demand for beef casings they are primarily only available loose or in net packs either salted or in brine. Packaging Sheep and lamb and hog casings are available "tubed" where each strand is put on a plastic tube which allows the sausage maker to easily place the casing on the stuffing horn; in recent years these tubes have been modified so they break open along a seam and the operator can pull them out at the back of the horn allowing greater efficiency; these are referred to in the industry as "zip tubes", due to the zipper like nature of the seam. These tubed casings are then packed in plastic nets usually 2 per net and packed in plastic drums which are then filled with a saturated salt brine, usually 200 per drum. These are available in all diameters and in lengths greater than 3 meters (as 2 meter or shorter pieces are cost prohibitive to tube). Sheep and lamb and hog are also available loose in brine in a vacuum sealed plastic pack; commonly referred to as "vacuum packs", these are primarily used by small to medium sized sausage makers who use less than 100 hanks per month of casing. The appeal of vacuum packs is the ease of use, their shorter strand length for hand stuffing (all sausage makers who do not use automatic sausage stuffing and linking machines) and their shelf life; they only need to be opened as needed so the sausage maker does not need to worry that they will not use their opened casings prior to a decrease in quality. These are available in all diameters and in put ups from short up to medium length, about 6 meter minimum, with a maximum length of about 14 meters. Sheep and lamb and hog are also available in a net, commonly referred to as net pack. These are available salted or in brine and they are primarily used by medium to large sausage makers who do not want to pay the additional cost for the tubed casing and do not have automatic sausage stuffing and linking machines (which require tubed casings to operate efficiently). These are available in all diameters and in lengths greater than 2 meters (as that is the shortest length sold for commercial use). Beef casings are