Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 28
1 MS. STEEL: Day 88, page 69, line 23. He said on average --
2 I was about to say the Bowes sows -- their sows have seven
3 litters and then they would be slaughtered aged about three
4 to four years. That was on day 88, page 70, line 32. He
5 agreed that the, sort of, average life span of a pig is
6 about ten to twelve years.
7
8 He said that basically their lives were curtailed at three
9 to four years because you have to take into consideration
10 the economics of it, it does not become economical to
11 maintain and keep that sow after that period on average.
12 So again, in the name of economics, pigs' lives are being
13 dispensed with when they are not productive enough.
14
15 In terms of the total numbers of pigs, I think Dr. Bowes
16 said that the company owns roughly 100,000 pigs. That was
17 on day 96, page 7, line 9. 40,000 are on the Bowes farms,
18 the other 50,000 to 55,000 are on the contract system where
19 the Bowes supply the pigs, other farms supply the labour,
20 et cetera. On top of the 100,000 pigs, Bowes buys pigs
21 direct from other farmers and per year he said that was
22 about 300,000 pigs. The reference for that was 96, 9, 7.
23 He said, "We are buying pigs from outside our own system of
24 our own farms and contract farms." That was 96, 9, 55. And
25 that was from approximately 80 to 100 other suppliers.
26 That was 96, page 10, line 12.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is the 300,000 still, is it not?
29
30 MS. STEEL: Yes... I am not sure, actually. (Pause).
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think it must be. It took me some time to
33 realise what I thought he was saying, but what I thought it
34 amounted to was that they had only, at any given time,
35 about 100,000 pigs which they owned; 40,000 were reared on
36 their own farms, he said 50,000 to 56,000, but it was the
37 balance of the about 100,000 anyway, on a contract system,
38 where Bowes supplied the pigs and other farms supplied the
39 labour. Plus they bought 300,000 pigs, I assume per annum,
40 from other farmers. And was it not to those other farmers,
41 query whether it was, that they actually supplied the
42 feed?
43
44 I mean, it may not matter at the end of the day, because
45 the broad picture I get... I am not entirely clear in my
46 own mind. I mean, the turnover of the 100,000.
47
48 MS. STEEL: Presumably that is for every 25 or 26 weeks.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
51
52 MS. STEEL: Obviously they are not all going to be going at the
53 same time.
54
55 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You see, it works out quite well. I am just
56 going to make a note. Just pause a minute. (Pause)
57 I am saying this so I can be disabused of the notion. The
58 very first thing you said was referring to what Mr. Bowes
59 said at day 88, page 2, line 47: Bowes owns about 100,000
60 pigs. 60 percent production comes from other producers.
