Day 290 - 30 Oct 96 - Page 30


     
     1        bought in East Anglia, that was the contract suppliers.  He
     2        said -- yes, he said, "the occasional load from
     3        Yorkshire".  That was day 96, page 10.
     4
     5        Incidentally,, I have just found a reference to the
     6        question that you were asking earlier.  On day 96, page 9,
     7        line 47, he said that it was about 2.2 litters a year of
     8        piglets.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Yes, thank you.  (Pause)
    11
    12   MS. STEEL:   I don't know whether this makes it more confusing,
    13        or what, but there was a reference in the pamphlet, the
    14        coloured Bowes pamphlet, saying that many weaners were
    15        bought in for the finishing herd.  He said they were bought
    16        in at 30 kilograms, which would be after the weaning stage,
    17        yes, after the weaner stage.  That was on day 96, page 32.
    18        You asked what percentage of the pigs which go into the
    19        finishing units are bought in.  He said about 50 percent.
    20        That was on page 33.  (Pause).
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I would not get bogged down in these
    23        figures.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:   No.  (Pause)  He referred to the fact that piglets
    26        used to be kept on the flat deck system, an all heated,
    27        ventilated, airconditioned system.  He said those have been
    28        eliminated because the kennel system is simpler, it is a
    29        much more economic system.  That was day 88, page 63, line
    30        1.
    31
    32        He said that ten years ago a lot of suppliers would have
    33        still been using them and people were still using them
    34        three or four years ago.  I have done this in the wrong
    35        order.  That was page 68, line 33.
    36
    37        Basically, in the flat deck system the floors were woven
    38        mesh, metal mesh, with approximately five millimetre gaps
    39        between the mesh, and 15 to 20 pigs would be kept in an
    40        area about 12 feet by 14 feet.  The reference for that is
    41        day 88, page 64, line 46.  He said that they did not have
    42        any bedding in that system.  That was day 88, page 65, line
    43        25.  So that system of keeping 15 to 20 piglets in an area
    44        only 12 by 14 foot was still in use at the time of the
    45        alleged libel.  And keeping them, obviously, on a mesh
    46        floor without any bedding, which is hardly a natural
    47        habitat for a pig and they are hardly going to like being
    48        kept in those conditions.
    49
    50        The finishing units.  As we have heard from Mr. Bowes, both 
    51        the indoor and the outdoor pigs were taken to finishing 
    52        units, obviously at different ages depending on whether 
    53        they were from the outdoor or indoor stream.  (Pause)
    54
    55        There was a description given on day 88, page 26, I think,
    56        of the finishing units, and basically the density of the
    57        pigs in the finishing units at 90 kilograms live weight was
    58        0.52 of a square metre each.  That was day 88, page 27,
    59        line 40.
    60

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