Day 093 - 28 Feb 95 - Page 23
1 A. No.
2
3 Q. So you have not asked Tyson or Cargill about how many
4 people they have checking on the birds?
5 A. If I do not know it is because I do not know.
6
7 Q. McDonald's have never asked you to find that out?
8 A. No.
9
10 Q. Do Tysons' other customers now use the Mr. McDonald
11 chicken?
12 A. I think we went through this before. There is no
13 Mr. McDonald chicken.
14
15 Q. Breed?
16 A. There is no Mr. McDonald breed.
17
18 Q. I thought there was?
19 A. No, there is not. We currently have breeds. We do not
20 have Mr. McDonald breed. You are talking about a reference
21 of a book that was published several years ago. Today we
22 have totally different birds that are in the past.
23
24 Q. So Mr. McDonald is not used any more?
25 A. Mr. McDonald was a reference that somebody published to
26 a specific type of broiler. That has changed and it will
27 change today and it will change tomorrow and it changed
28 before, they called it Mr. McDonald's.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: When was Mr. McDonald on the scene?
31 A. It is back in the early 80s there was -- and this is
32 not a specific breed developed for us. Tyson is involved
33 in a totally integrated poultry business in which they
34 produce all the way from the breeds to our products. The
35 breeds have been improved constantly since Tysons has been
36 in the business.
37
38 At one point, because we wanted a bigger bird, they
39 selected some birds for that purpose. Most of the things,
40 it was not just genetics, it was also the environment and
41 the time in which the animals were fed. In those days it
42 was typical that a broiler will be fed for about 40 days.
43 We changed that to about in the 50s, so we could get a
44 bigger bird that could get more meat in proportion to the
45 bones that will suit our purposes to make our products.
46
47 Q. Rightly or wrongly, I got the impression that a time came
48 when a significantly larger bird was produced?
49 A. That is correct.
50
51 Q. And that was called "Mr. McDonald". For all I know, it had
52 some other more scientific name, but the name
53 "Mr. McDonald" was attached to it. Is that right or not?
54 A. Yes, it was.
55
56 Q. Over what period of time was that bird used by Tysons for
57 McDonald's?
58 A. OK. I cannot tell you exactly for how long. What
59 I can say is that the breeds are constantly improved.
60
