Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 66
1 A. Never.
2
3 Q. Right. Have your suppliers ever used dry sow stalls?
4 A. Yes.
5
6 Q. Most of them?
7 A. No.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You will have to help me on that as well.
10
11 MS. STEEL: I will go through it. The dry sow stalls, how many
12 of your suppliers use that system?
13 A. Used it?
14
15 Q. Yes. Well, how many use it now?
16 A. As no doubt you are aware, by 1998 it will be illegal
17 in this country for sow stores to be in place in any farm
18 in this country or tethers as well. So I would say that
19 those people who are going to be in the pig industry at
20 that time by far the biggest majority have already removed
21 them.
22
23 Q. How many of your suppliers currently use dry sow stalls?
24 A. I would say less than 10 per cent.
25
26 Q. Five years ago how many of your suppliers were using dry
27 sow stalls?
28 A. I could not answer that because we did not take a
29 census on it or anything then.
30
31 Q. It has gone down, though, has it, since these regulations
32 came in?
33 A. Yes.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I would like to know. I know you are coming
36 to it.
37
38 MS. STEEL: I was just about to come on to it.
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I need to know what they are if I am going to
41 take on board the significance of these answers.
42
43 MS. STEEL: A dry sow stall is a narrow metal barred stall in
44 which the sow can only stand up or lie down, is that not
45 right?
46 A. That is correct.
47
48 Q. The floor is concrete and slats?
49 A. It can be either. It can be both.
50
51 Q. If it is concrete the sow would be lying in her own muck?
52 A. Not necessarily because it could be sloped so it slides
53 away.
54
55 Q. Not necessarily, but it could be that she was lying in her
56 own muck?
57 A. It could be.
58
59 Q. And would remain in that dry sow stall for the whole of the
60 pregnancy, is that right?
