Day 078 - 26 Jan 95 - Page 52


     
     1        Lord Vesty.  He says that the beef was bred on the natural
     2        scrub plains of the States Minas, Goias and Mato Grosso.
     3        He says they are fattened in the State of San Palo.  What
     4        does that mean?  Is there some different process?
     5        A.  No.  If you understand the livestock industry, there is
     6        a system -----
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not go into this in great detail.  Just
     9        tell us in a sentence, if you can, what happens in the
    10        first areas and then what happens in the second.
    11        A.  In the first area the cattle are bred.  In the second
    12        area they are brought to higher quality grass to fatten and
    13        finish.
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:  Do they also have additional feed apart from
    16        grass?  Do they have grains or whatever?
    17        A.  No.
    18
    19   MR. MORRIS:  Not in Brazil.  It might be worth having a break.
    20        I think we have actually finished with the balance sheet
    21        beef, you will be pleased to know.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  We will take our five minutes.
    24
    25                       (Short Adjournment).
    26
    27   MS. STEEL:  I actually have a couple more questions on this.
    28        What age are the cattle when they are taken to the higher
    29        quality grass to fatten and finish?
    30        A.  Store cattle, I can only answer that question in the
    31        context of Britain.
    32
    33   Q.   I was asking about Brazil really.
    34        A.  I would think it would be exactly the same.  Stores
    35        would be up to 12, 14 months, and they go on to fatten to
    36        about two, two and a half years.
    37
    38   Q.   So they would be around 12 to 14 months when they got
    39        moved?
    40        A.  Yes.
    41
    42   Q.   Have you still got yellow XI?
    43        A.  Volume 11.
    44
    45   Q.   Can you turn to the tabs behind the sub-tab 5 -- sorry,
    46        sub-tab 4, as it were, behind your statement which is at
    47        tab 5.
    48        A.  Yes.
    49
    50   Q.   This is the letter from Lord Vesty to you on 6th June 
    51        1983.  In the fourth paragraph he says: "It is therefore 
    52        obvious that this export works is not involved with pasture 
    53        formation or cattle raising in the rainforest region of
    54        Brazil and we would never find it economically feasible to
    55        truck fat cattle 2,000 kilometres." It appears that Lord
    56        Vesty thinks it is feasible to truck young cattle those
    57        kinds of distances?
    58        A.  I am sure he does not.  It would be even less likely.
    59
    60   Q.   Why do you think he said just fat cattle?

Prev Next Index