Day 090 - 16 Feb 95 - Page 51


     
     1        farm, I apologise.  What I mean is that a farm is usually
     2        depopulated over no more than two days.  The first house to
     3        be cleared of birds, the cleaning crew would immediately go
     4        in and take out the environment/index.html">litter and then they would move on to
     5        the next house taking out the environment/index.html">litter.  Meanwhile, another
     6        crew would start washing down the first house and then that
     7        crew would move on to the second house to do the
     8        wash-down.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I get the picture now. If you have each unit
    11        in series being empty for at least five days, even though
    12        if there are a number of units you might start filling the
    13        first one before you finish with your lay period on the
    14        last one, there will be a period in that 10 days where the
    15        whole farm is quiet for five?
    16        A.  That is correct, yes.
    17
    18   Q.   Even if you have only got a small number of units you still
    19        stick to those periods?
    20        A.  That is correct, yes.
    21
    22   Q.   If you had a lot of men working quickly through a large
    23        number of units you would still stick to those figures,
    24        would you?
    25        A.  That is correct.  Obviously it is much easier with the
    26        smaller farms.  With a smaller number of units you can
    27        actually leave the houses empty for longer, or the farm
    28        empty for longer, which has a great benefit from a hygiene
    29        point of view.
    30
    31   Q.   In the 50s I recall a practice grew up that some people to
    32        add to their income if their back garden was big enough or
    33        they had a paddock, they might build a broiler unit and
    34        contract themselves to someone or other and do a bit of
    35        work before they went off to the office and a bit when they
    36        got back and so on.  Is that a practice which still
    37        prevails and, if not, when did it come to an end?  Am
    38        I right in my recollection?
    39        A.  You are absolutely right.  This was a very common
    40        practice.  We do still have a small number of these units
    41        on contract to Sun Valley.  That would be an example of the
    42        one house unit or one farm unit that I referred to
    43        yesterday.  That practice is less and less common now
    44        because the standards of management required and the size
    45        of the unit required to make it economic in this day and
    46        age really mean that the house has to be bigger, the unit
    47        size has to be bigger and the farm really has to be bigger
    48        to be a truly economic proposition.  It is less common now
    49        for people just to have broilers as a very subsidiary
    50        enterprise. 
    51 
    52   Q.   But you do not have people going off to the office for 
    53        eight to 10 hours in the middle of the day and no one
    54        looking after broiler house?
    55        A.  No, it is not just not possible to manage chickens like
    56        that nowadays.  They do require much more care and
    57        attention, it seems, than 30 years ago.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:  When the sheds are depopulated are the birds
    60        actually counted when they go for slaughter?

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