Day 102 - 13 Mar 95 - Page 57
1 A. No. They have been in operation much longer than
2 that. I should I think the mid 80s probably if not longer.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Just to go back over a couple of things to clarify
5 the situation, going back to the broiler shed very briefly,
6 you said something like a truck every 45 minutes would
7 arrive and that would take about 5,000 birds away,
8 something like that. The first 10 or 15 minutes from the
9 arrival of that truck would be bringing in the modules,
10 yes?
11 A. Yes.
12
13 Q. So, effectively, 5,000 birds are loaded in about half an
14 hour on to the truck or into the modules and then on to the
15 truck?
16 A. Yes. I think you have to think of the whole thing as a
17 continuous process of several trucks with trailers behind
18 them, arriving on a big farm and there is a constant cycle
19 of activity going on.
20
21 Q. But in any one particular shed there would be a period of,
22 say, 10 to 15 minutes when the module goes out and the
23 module comes in?
24 A. Yes.
25
26 Q. When there are no actual birds being loaded.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Is that how it happens or when the first
29 module is brought in by the forklift do they start loading
30 that while the forklift goes and gets the next ----
31 A. That is right.
32
33 Q. --- when there is a full one the forklift will take it back
34 and put another in and so on?
35 A. Yes. It is a continuous sort of cycle going on like
36 this.
37
38 MR. MORRIS: But there are periods when there is no loading
39 going on while you are driving the module out?
40 A. There is a separate driver for the module and he is not
41 involved in the catching. So they can carry on catching
42 while he is driving.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: He brings them in and then takes back as and
45 when?
46 A. That is right.
47
48 Q. He is not involved with the catching itself?
49
50 MR. MORRIS: You only get one module in a shed at a time?
51 A. No. There are six or seven modules in a house at the
52 same time loaded in a sort of herring bone shape.
53
54 Q. So of a team of about six, one is the driver and the other
55 five are catchers, yes?
56 A. That is correct, yes.
57
58 Q. If they are doing 5,000 in 45 minutes, something like 100 a
59 minute so each catcher has to do about 20 each minute, 20
60 birds into a drawer each minute?
