Day 020 - 28 Jul 94 - Page 60
1
Q. But 12 weeks is a rough guide?
2 A. As a rough guide, yes.
3 Q. What age would they be at 90 kilograms when they went to
slaughter?
4 A. Again ask Mr. Bowes for an accurate figure.
5 Q. You have not a rough idea of that?
A. I used to. It is not the kind of information I recall
6 at the moment. I used to do this sort of thing
regularly. I do not recall at the moment.
7
Q. Are we talking about less than a year?
8 A. Oh, yes, it might be 160 days.
9 Q. I asked you about a year. Do you know whether they would
be older than half a year when they were slaughtered?
10 A. Yes, they would be between half a year and one year.
11 Q. So that means they spend at least 14 weeks in the
fattening unit?
12 A. That is possible. Please check with Mr. Bowes.
13 Q. Right. OK. Just over half a square metre per pig for
maximum stocking density: Do you think that is much room
14 for a pig?
A. It could be more if that is what you mean, yes. It
15 could be that they might even enjoy more if given the
opportunity, yes.
16
Q. Do you think they would probably enjoy more?
17 A. I think that is quite likely, yes.
18 Q. So do you think that that amount of space per pig could be
limiting its freedom of movement?
19 A. I think that is unlikely bearing in mind that it is a
fairly big pen with a lot of pigs in. So, it would only
20 limit its movement in so far as there might be crowding of
adjacent animals. In terms of lying area, you may get --
21 sorry, intense stocking can lead to squabbling amongst the
pigs. That is an indication that they are stocked too
22 heavily, yes. So, the more space you give them, provided
it is not cold and they want to huddle together to keep
23 warm, the more space you give them, the more spread out
they are likely to be, and the less prone squabbling.
24
Q. So the amount of room they got could have a bearing on
25 their opportunities to exercise normal patterns of
behaviour?
26 A. In what respects? Can you help me in what
particular ways you are thinking of?
27
Q. You said if they have more space they would move apart,
28 not squash up, what have you?
A. There might be less squabbling if they had more space,
29 yes.
30 Q. Keeping them indoors, I mean, pigs normally like rooting
around?
