Day 090 - 16 Feb 95 - Page 45
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2 MS. STEEL: Does capping of environment/index.html">litter ever occur at Sun Valley?
3 A. Capping of environment/index.html">litter can occur, and it should be dealt
4 with by putting fresh environment/index.html">litter on the top and forking gently.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is capping, a hard surface?
7 A. Capping is just a hard surface, yes.
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9 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, it is a fairly peaceful afternoon and I
10 do not want to disrupt that, but if we have left barley and
11 it is in due course to be suggested by Ms. Steel, or any of
12 her witnesses, that the use of barley in the feed is
13 inimical to animal welfare, whether before the advent of
14 enzyme usage or after, then it needs to be put to
15 Dr. Pattison.
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17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I had not understood that it was.
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19 MS. STEEL: No, it was not being put at all.
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21 MR. RAMPTON: I do not understand the purpose of the
22 cross-examination in that case. We had, I think, ten
23 minutes on barley.
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25 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I had taken the significance of barley to be
26 that, since you have been able to give more, you have been
27 able to improve the quality of the environment/index.html">litter, and that has
28 been over -- what was it, the last two or three years?
29 A. Certainly about four years, yes.
30
31 MS. STEEL: If the environment/index.html">litter becomes capped, it basically becomes
32 useless as environment/index.html">litter, does it not? It becomes hard and
33 greasy?
34 A. Yes, that can happen, although it will tend to break
35 down gradually as well. There is usually a good reason why
36 it has become capped. The cause of the capping has to be
37 determined and rectified.
38
39 Q. What has been the cause of the capping when that has
40 happened at Sun Valley then?
41 A. Usually a drinker spillage.
42
43 Q. It can also be caused by feeding back the remains of dead
44 poultry?
45 A. Well, greasy droppings would not normally be associated
46 directly with feeding poultry meal. Greasy droppings can
47 occur for a number of reasons, but more commonly it is
48 through feeding excess saturated animal fats than feeding
49 poultry meal.
50
51 Q. Has that been the cause of the problems on some occasions
52 at Sun Valley?
53 A. I would say that greasy environment/index.html">litter in the past has been
54 related to using too much animal fat, saturated fat, the
55 sort of tallow that you would get from rendering plants,
56 and there is a very definite finite limit to the amount of
57 that product that you should use.
58
59 Q. So do your new specifications take that into account?
60 A. Yes, they do.
