Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 27


     
     1        giving them plenty of straw.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not sure I have the picture,
     4        Mr. Rampton.  Does that mean the side walls of the units
     5        have these slatted walls, the Yorkshire boarding, as you
     6        call it?
     7        A.  If I can describe it to you, sir, if we take the
     8        courtroom as the place where the pigs lie and sleep, the
     9        passageway is the dunging area and the dunging area outside
    10        is where the Yorkshire boards, so that is free flowing air
    11        so you disperse smell and ammonia and all things like
    12        that.  So they have an area to go out and urinate and to
    13        muck.
    14
    15   MR. RAMPTON:  Looking at this photograph, there appear to be
    16        some parts of these buildings have raised roofs?
    17        A.  Yes, that is for ventilation.
    18
    19   Q.   That is for ventilation?
    20        A.  That is for natural ventilation.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So the roof is lifted above the walls, as it
    23        were?
    24        A.  Yes, so there is a gap along the side where the air can
    25        come through and with the heat of the pigs ----
    26
    27   Q.   And at the side of each building is what you call the
    28        dunging area, the wall of which is this Yorkshire boarding?
    29        A.  Yes, the upper part of the wall, the upper part.
    30
    31   MR. RAMPTON:  Are they good about using the dunging area or do
    32        they go to the lavatory inside the pens?
    33        A.  I am not going to say you do not get an occasion pen,
    34        but that is very, very unusual.  I can say 99, again 99.9
    35        per cent of the pigs will use the straw bedded area for
    36        sleeping in.
    37
    38   Q.   Dr. Gregory told us, Mr. Bowes, that the density of the
    39        pigs in the finishing unit at 90 kilograms live weight was
    40         .52 of a square metre each, yes?
    41        A.  That is correct.
    42
    43   Q.   That is correct, is it?
    44        A.  Yes.
    45
    46   Q.   That is what I was going to ask you.
    47        A.  Yes, .52, sir.
    48
    49   Q.   Is that, I suppose it follows it must be, the densest they
    50        ever are which is at those slaughterhouses? 
    51        A.  Yes, that is at the finishing end when it is .5 per 
    52        square metre, so when the small pigs go in to begin with, 
    53        they have the same space all the time and so they can play
    54        grouped, and to keep them warm we then put extra straw in
    55        at the beginning of their life.
    56
    57   Q.   What are they fed on while they are in the finishing unit?
    58        A.  A proper cereal based diet of this -- it is a stage on
    59        from the weaner diet, it is now called the finishing diet.
    60

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