Day 092 - 27 Feb 95 - Page 61


     
     1        important, your 20,000 square feet, is that because you
     2        know that that is the area of a typical shed holding 22,000
     3        birds, or have you done some arithmetic from what you take
     4        the dimensions of the shed to be about which you might be
     5        mistaken, it seems to me, in order to get the sum?  Tell me
     6        where you got your 20,000 square feet from?
     7        A.  I estimate a total, what is the length and what is the
     8        width, so I calculate it just to square feet.
     9
    10   Q.   From pacing it out yourself?
    11        A.  Yes.  No, sorry.  When I got those figures I wanted to
    12        see the average and I wanted to see the one that I was
    13        looking at.  They told me this would be an average.  They
    14        told me the dimensions and I just calculated the square
    15        feet.
    16
    17   Q.   That came out, you say, at 20,000?
    18        A.  That is correct.
    19
    20   Q.   There is no legislation.  There is not a code of practice
    21        which gives maximum stocking density?
    22        A.  Yes.
    23
    24   Q.   It does not sound so far as if people have in mind a
    25        particular number of kilos per square metre as a useful
    26        guide.  Is that fair or not?
    27        A.  OK.  What is the driver is there are no stocking
    28        densities or no laws and regulations.  I have a simple
    29        explanation or rule that I must go by.  Every time there is
    30        a law it is because probably they deserve it.  Every time
    31        there is a regulation in any industry it is because they
    32        deserve it.  The US has taken the approach that normal
    33        business practices will take care of that.  If a farmer
    34        over-stocks he is going to lose money.  If he loses money
    35        he is not going to be in the business.  It is such a small
    36        margin of profit that if it happens it happens very fast.
    37
    38   Q.   I understand all that, but who lays down the size of the
    39        shed?  Are you saying Tysons and Cargill worked out that in
    40        order to get 22,000 birds as healthily as possible to
    41        slaughter, they need a shed this size; or they start off
    42        with sheds which tend to be of a certain size and they have
    43        gradually worked out that they can best from a commercial
    44        point of view put 22,000 birds into that size of shed?
    45        A.  OK.
    46
    47   Q.   They are not working out 36s or 35s or 37s.  They have a
    48        shed of a certain size and so many thousand birds they can
    49        successfully rear in it.  Is that the approach?
    50        A.  OK.  There has been a lot of research into that.  A lot 
    51        of the companies who manufacture the sheds, it is pretty 
    52        much standard dimensions; they vary very little.  So it is 
    53        known through a lot of work and research that those are the
    54        optimum sizes and dimensions. They also work along with the
    55        location of the houses.  It is common practices from the
    56        farmers, they know how many birds they can put.  They know
    57        if they over-stock they are going to lose money.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Thank you.
    60

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