Day 090 - 16 Feb 95 - Page 54


     
     1        to farmers for spreading on the land.
     2
     3   Q.   I understand, but has that always been so?
     4        A.  That has always been the case.
     5
     6   Q.   I would just like to get it straight.  I want to put this
     7        in my notebook as well.  When you say "Sun Valley" do you
     8        just mean your own farms or the contractors as well?
     9        A.  I am referring to our contractors as well.
    10
    11   Q.   That is poultry environment/index.html">litter then?
    12        A.  Yes.
    13
    14   Q.   Poultry meat and bonemeal, which presumably includes offal?
    15        A.  Yes.
    16
    17   Q.   Tell me about that?  Has there been a change in the
    18        situation with regard to that?
    19        A.  The change in the situation is that the company took
    20        that ingredient out of its poultry rations around 1992.
    21
    22   Q.   But poultry meat and bonemeal which has come from your
    23        plant can still go to feed other animals, can it?
    24        A.  Yes, that would be sold to an independent operator who
    25        could do what he wished with it.
    26
    27   Q.   So it could go to feed other poultry in fact or cattle or
    28        pigs?
    29        A.  That is possible.
    30
    31   Q.   That is not your poultry but other poultry somewhere?
    32        A.  That is correct.
    33
    34   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, I understand.  Thank you.
    35
    36   MS. STEEL:  Did you have a specification to prevent the selling
    37        of poultry environment/index.html">litter for use as animal feed?
    38        A.  We do not have a specification as such.  What we do as
    39        a company is we provide a service to our contracted
    40        growers.  We provide a manager and in fact two people who
    41        actually find markets for the poultry environment/index.html">litter.  They find
    42        farmers who want to use it for spreading on the land.
    43        There is nothing in the contract to say that a farmer
    44        contracted to Sun Valley cannot do what he wishes with the
    45        poultry environment/index.html">litter, but most of them make use of the service
    46        where we supply it to other farmers for spreading on the
    47        land.  In fact, many of the growers spread their own environment/index.html">litter
    48        on their own land because they are mixed farmers with
    49        several different enterprises.
    50 
    51   Q.   So, in fact, Mr. Thomas could have been, for example, 
    52        selling his poultry environment/index.html">litter for use in animal feed? 
    53        A.  He could have done that. There is nothing we could have
    54        done to stop him, no.
    55
    56   Q.   Is there a problem with the disposal of offal and other
    57        such things?
    58        A.  There is a big problem since the BSE scare in disposing
    59        of meat and bonemeal from all species.  I understand that a
    60        lot of it is actually exported now.

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