Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 55


     
     1        A.  To a very limited extent.  I assume you are referring
     2        only to the feed lot operations, to the intensive
     3        production?
     4
     5   Q.   I do not know.  You would have to tell me.
     6        A.  The majority of the cattle does not go through a feed
     7        lot, and that is a common practice throughout the world.
     8        Only a small proportion of those animals are selected to go
     9        to a feed lot.  So, let us say, we focus in the US, there
    10        is an animal who is about two to three years old that has
    11        spent that part of his life in an open pasture and he goes
    12        to a feed lot for about 100 days.  During those 100 days
    13        they consume a very small amount of soya beans.  In fact,
    14        I just verified that.  I call our suppliers and then ask
    15        him to verify how much soyabeans are we using.  This is
    16        within the last week.  None of the places that were
    17        contacted were currently using soya bean; not that is
    18        because it is bad, simply because it is not economically
    19        feasible.
    20
    21   Q.   Where did the soya beans which in small quantities, as you
    22        said, are eaten by American cattle, where does that soya
    23        meal come from?
    24        A.  In the US, it comes primary from a by-product of oil
    25        extraction, so it is a soya bean paste that comes from
    26        within the US.
    27
    28   Q.   From within the US?
    29        A.  Most of it, yes.
    30
    31   Q.   Do you know about the use of soya meal for the feeding of
    32        cattle elsewhere in the world?
    33        A.  Very limited.  Again, soya bean is expensive.  I do not
    34        know.  In fact, I have not come across to anybody who has
    35        used it.
    36
    37   Q.   Do not worry about it; we have somebody who can deal with
    38        it later on.  I am going to leave cattle then, if I may,
    39        and go on to pigs.  Have you visited pig farms in the
    40        United States?
    41        A.  Yes, I have.
    42
    43   Q.   And elsewhere in the world?
    44        A.  Yes, I have.
    45
    46   Q.   Do the conditions in which the pigs are bred and grown up
    47        ready for slaughter vary in different countries?
    48        A.  Yes, you can make some generalisations but they vary
    49        within the country and they vary within even a country.
    50 
    51   Q.   Do some of them grow up in the open air? 
    52        A.  Open air? 
    53
    54   Q.   Yes, open air.
    55        A.  What do you mean, do they have access to fresh air?
    56
    57   Q.   In a pen in a field or something like that?
    58        A.  Yes, they do -- they have to.
    59
    60   Q.   And some in houses?

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