Day 091 - 17 Feb 95 - Page 29
1 A. They have access, ad-lib access, to food.
2 They eat what they want to eat. They are not forced to eat
3 anything. They are not forced to overeat, as you put it.
4
5 Q. But they would eat less if the lights were off at night?
6 A. What we have found by switching the lights off is that
7 birds will just tend to eat more while the lights are on,
8 and then they do not eat while the lights go off, but the
9 daily consumption remains the same.
10
11 Q. So you do not think that the chickens in the broiler houses
12 have a tendency to get fat or a potential to get fat?
13 A. They have that potential but because we kill them at
14 the age that we do, they have not put on excess fat at that
15 stage.
16
17 MR. JUSTICE BELL: May I just ask a question about that? The
18 choice of age when the birds are killed, is that entirely
19 because the growth rate tends to level off, or is it also
20 partly because as they continue to grow the meat will get
21 fattier or the bird will get fatter?
22 A. No, it is really limited by what the consumer actually
23 wants, the size of bird that the consumer wants. So, most
24 consumers would be looking for a bird to go to
25 supermarkets, or whatever, which would weigh in the order
26 of four or five pounds. The industry has been developed
27 really to produce a bird which is the right size for the
28 consumer.
29
30 Q. But that, obviously, does not apply to meat which is
31 processed into Nuggets or something of that kind?
32 A. No.
33
34 Q. But the Nugget market, or whatever, follows the general
35 trend of four to five pounds, does it?
36 A. Yes. For deboned meat we like to grow the birds for a
37 bit longer so that they are up to six, six-and-a-half
38 pounds to 3 kilo level that we talked about. That seems to
39 be an ideal age to take the meat off the carcass. But you
40 do have to remember that there are other factors, retail
41 factors which have to be taken into account when
42 determining that age.
43
44 So, for example, if we are taking breast meat off a bird,
45 the drum sticks will be sold as a package to a supermarket
46 who require a certain size of drum stick. That, if you
47 like, by-product is a very important part of the business
48 package that we have to take into account. So, we would
49 not be able to just grow huge birds just because that -----
50
51 Q. The answer is that the age of killing is not related to
52 either a leveling off at the rate of growth or a
53 heightening of the element of fat at somewhere around 42
54 days or 52 to 53 days?
55 A. No, those are not, really, the major considerations at
56 that time.
57
58 MS. STEEL: Sun Valley does not do whole chickens any more, does
59 it? It is not in that business?
60 A. That is correct.
