Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 19


     
     1
     2   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   You must get your publicity for that
     3        elsewhere, quite frankly.
     4
     5   MR. MORRIS:   It is not publicity.  It is a point we are making.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have told you, this leaflet means more than
     8        that.
     9
    10   MR. MORRIS:   Right.  OK.
    11
    12   MS. STEEL:   Moving on to pigs, going through the evidence of
    13        Mr. Ashley Bowes, the director of GG Bowes and Sons, of
    14        Watton in Norfolk, he said that Bowes owns roughly one
    15        hundred thousand pigs -- that was day 88, page 2, line 47
    16        -- but they also buy pigs from other producers.  In fact,
    17        approximately 60 percent of the factory production was
    18        brought from other producers.  The reference for that is
    19        day 88, page 2, line 55.  He said that they do not own
    20        enough land even for the 100,000 pigs that are owned by
    21        Bowes so some of them were reared on other farms, roughly,
    22        kind of, under their guidance but not totally, with the
    23        other farms providing the labour and basically carrying out
    24        the work but Bowes providing the food and veterinary
    25        attention where necessary.  That was on day 88, page 4,
    26        line 14.  I think he said that there were about 70 other
    27        farmers.  He said that Bowes had 2,300 sows in indoor units
    28        and 4,000 sows in outdoor units. That was day 88, page 3,
    29        line 24.
    30
    31   MR JUSTICE BELL:  Let me just get those figures again.  How many
    32        sows in outdoor?
    33
    34   MS. STEEL:   4,000 in outdoor units.  These were the ones that
    35        were actually owned by Bowes.  They are the breeders as
    36        well.  I mean, obviously, they go for meat but they are not
    37        the kind of ones that are being -- I don't know.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes, I understand that.  What was the figure
    40        for -----?
    41
    42   MS. STEEL:   2,300 for indoors, 4,000 for outdoor units.
    43
    44   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes.  Those figures were just slightly
    45        different to Dr. Gregory were they not?   But it does not
    46        matter, it is not significant.  He said 60 percent of their
    47        breeding units were outside.  Nine outdoor units with about
    48        500 sows on each, and then about 40 percent indoors.  But
    49        -----
    50 
    51   MS. STEEL:   Mr. Bowes said that obviously they have got more. 
    52        Like, he was giving more recent figures.  In fact, I think 
    53        the general thrust of Mr. Bowes' evidence was that they
    54        were moving away from indoor systems.  I mean, obviously,
    55        they were not doing it totally because companies like
    56        McDonald's were not willing to pay the higher price for the
    57        outdoor pork, but that over time...  Because I think Dr.
    58        Bowes said that there was a point in the 1970s when all of
    59        the company's pigs were inside and that they had gradually
    60        come more outside from that time.  I probably have a

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