Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 30


     
     1        A.  Yes, he does.
     2
     3   Q.   Do you train your stockmen?
     4        A.  Yes, we do.
     5
     6   Q.   Do you train them for all stages of a pig's life?
     7        A.  Yes, we do.
     8
     9   Q.   Will you have somebody in attendance when the sow in her
    10        farrowing arc is having her piglets?
    11        A.  If there are difficulties, yes, but normally they are
    12        allowed to farrow by their own natural means.
    13
    14   Q.   How does a pig in a farrowing ark in a field, how does she
    15        go about having her piglets?  What does she do?
    16        A.  When the in-pig sows are coming to their time to give
    17        birth, they will be put in a paddock where there is the
    18        insulated arcs, and they will then select themselves which
    19        arc they will pig down or farrow in.  Occasionally, there
    20        are problems.  Sometimes you will have two sows choose to
    21        go into one arc.  So, then the pig man, he then has to use
    22        his expertise in persuading the sow to remain in one arc
    23        for the benefit of the youngsters.
    24
    25   Q.   Is there a tendency for a sow to damage her piglets in some
    26        way after they have been born?
    27        A.  It has been known for sows to eat their piglets.
    28
    29   Q.   Eat them?
    30        A.  Yes.  It is a well-known fact that if the sow -- I am
    31        talking specifically outside now -- if she roots her nest
    32        too deep in the arc that the young piglets as they are born
    33        will roll underneath her and they will in turn then,
    34        unfortunately, be suffocated.
    35
    36   Q.   What can you do to prevent that from happening?
    37        A.  Well, that is to the stockman's discretion.  One way of
    38        preventing that is to put a ring in their nose.  That is,
    39        if a stockman does have that problem, that is what he does.
    40
    41   Q.   How does the ring work?  It goes through the nose?
    42        A.  It goes through the front of the nose, sir, like this.
    43
    44   Q.   One sees some human beings adorned in that manner.  It goes
    45        through the front of the nose and then there is a string or
    46        a rope on it, is there, or something?
    47        A.  Oh, no, no, no.
    48
    49   Q.   No?
    50        A.  No, no.  Just a ring so that when she puts down it is 
    51        a ----- 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What, it stops her digging too deep, do you
    54        mean?
    55        A.  It will not prevent her rooting, sir, but because she
    56        has the feeling of the ring, we believe, in the nose as
    57        being something that is unusual, she will not use her nose
    58        so much.
    59
    60   MR. RAMPTON:  We talked about tail biting a little earlier,

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