Day 090 - 16 Feb 95 - Page 50
1 hours.
2
3 Q. The problems with wet environment/index.html">litter, do they also affect the
4 amount of ammonia that is produced?
5 A. The wet environment/index.html">litter will prevent the correct microbial
6 fermentation going on in the environment/index.html">litter, so it will tend to
7 trap ammonia.
8
9 Q. So there would be less ammonia given off?
10 A. There would be less ammonia perhaps given off from the
11 environment/index.html">litter, but on the other hand if the cap is disturbed then
12 the cap tends to trap ammonia, so that is really ----
13
14 Q. So it would be more concentrated?
15 A. Yes, and that is undesirable.
16
17 Q. Is there an acceptable level of ammonia in the broiler
18 house?
19 A. Yes, there is. The aim is to have less than five parts
20 per million of ammonia in the atmosphere. At 20 parts per
21 million the smell is distinctly unpleasant, and at 50 parts
22 per million it can actually start doing damage to the
23 respiratory tract of the birds and is obviously highly
24 undesirable.
25
26 Q. What level of ammonia is generally found at Sun Valley?
27 A. Well, it is not something that we routinely measure,
28 because you normally use your sense of smell to detect
29 ammonia. The aim is to have five parts per million or
30 less, but I cannot say that we honestly measure it as such.
31
32 Q. Did the ammonia levels used to be greater?
33 A. No, I do not think so. I think it is something that
34 has not significantly changed.
35
36 Q. How does five parts per million compare with smelling
37 salts?
38 A. Smelling salts, Epsom salts, I mean five parts per
39 million is just about detectable by the human nose. As far
40 as I remember, smelling salts are pretty strong. It is not
41 the same compound anyway, so I am not really sure you can
42 compare them.
43
44 Q. Yesterday you said that the sheds were cleaned between each
45 flock, they were left five days clear between each flock
46 and 10 days for the whole farm.
47 A. That is correct.
48
49 Q. I was not quite sure, well, can you explain that?
50 A. The five-day empty period applies to a house, an
51 individual unit. The 10 days applies to the whole farm
52 which might be a collection of units.
53
54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, that slightly puzzled me. How do you
55 achieve that? You may have a series of units all coming on
56 or going off song, as it were. How do you manage to get 10
57 days when the whole farm is quiet?
58 A. What we do is -- maybe I did not say that the right
59 way, I did not say that the right way round, did I? What
60 I should have said is 10 days per unit and five days per
