Day 104 - 15 Mar 95 - Page 38
1 if I could put it that way.
2
3 Q. Do you know enough -- if you do not know, please say so;
4 again I do not know the answer to this -- about the dairy
5 farming industry to know to what extent farmers may be
6 inclined to fatten up old dairy cows before sending them
7 off for meat?
8 A. I am not expert in that, but I can give you an answer
9 from observation. A great number of cows come in
10 unfattened. They come direct from the herd. They are
11 younger cows, if they are clearly not going to be needed
12 commercially for milk, would be the more likely category to
13 be fattened up into butchers' cows, as they are described.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It would be a comparatively expensive
16 exercise for a comparatively lesser award for a farmer,
17 would it not, to take an old cow and fatten it up?
18 A. Indeed.
19
20 Q. To try to get a better price for the meat?
21 A. Absolutely. That is why I have no doubt it is rare.
22 It is the younger animals. There may be a change in plan
23 for one reason or another in terms of the size of the dairy
24 herd, and the cow is two or three years old, it would then
25 be worth finishing it, as the phrase has it, for higher
26 quality meat.
27
28 MR. RAMPTON: Miss Hovi, Mr. Bennett, it appears, attended
29 Jarrett's premises for a total of 124 hours during April in
30 1994. Her function there, it appears, was as an emergency
31 OVS. She was covering, I think, for somebody else or for a
32 gap, it appeared. Have you understood that from reading
33 -----
34 A. I was not absolutely clear about the reason for her
35 being appointed. She was certainly appointed as the
36 official veterinary surgeon. The circumstances would lead
37 you to think that she was a temporary cover.
38
39 MR. MORRIS: I did not understand any of that. If Mr. Rampton
40 wants to ask leading questions and raise issues that have
41 no evidence or whatever, then I think he should -----
42
43 MR. RAMPTON: Maybe Ms. Hovi will tell us about it when she
44 comes to give evidence, I expect she will. Anyway, suppose
45 she was there for -- this is recorded -- a total of 124
46 hours in the course of the month of April 1994 -- the time
47 sheets, my Lord, have been disclosed -- she expresses
48 surprise that, as OVS during that time, she was not shown
49 copies of McKey Food Services raw material specifications.
50 What comment do you have that about that?
51 A. It is no cause of surprise to me. The OVS would not
52 normally be shown specifications for two reasons: Firstly,
53 they are not particularly the concern of the enforcement
54 officer and, secondly, they are confidential.
55
56 Q. Would there be any reason for an OVS to look at the meat
57 specification of a customer?
58 A. If the circumstances are correct and there is a good
59 relationship (of which there often is), there is no reason,
60 given permission of everybody concerned, why the OVS would
