Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 54


     
     1        a big shed or what have you?
     2        A.  We have farms, traditional buildings that used to keep
     3        the carriages of horses, that used to keep the cows and
     4        calves, that have been used in the old traditional manner,
     5        that have been converted and had insulated floors put in
     6        for the production of pigs, and you can see some people
     7        saying it is great shame to see Georgian buildings with
     8        pigs in.
     9
    10   Q.   What size building are we talking about?
    11        A.  Again?
    12
    13   Q.   Something the size of this courtroom, bigger, smaller or
    14        not?
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do they vary enormously in size?
    17        A.  Well, sir, if we take this quite good example:  If this
    18        was originally a cattle yard, right, that would be
    19        converted for the use of, say, a dry sow house, so there
    20        would be the pens where the sows could go and feed, the
    21        troughs where they could go and feed, and the sows would be
    22        able to be in the straw and we would make kennels along the
    23        side so that the sows could go in the kennels, in the straw
    24        kennels, they could come out and feed and in the centre
    25        would be a walkway, a passageway, for the stock men to walk
    26        down and feed them, inspect them at least twice a day, and
    27        that would be a conversion of a traditional cattle yard.
    28        Now -----
    29
    30   Q.   Is it more or less like the kennels -- we have got
    31        photographs in the brochure outside but under a roof?
    32        A.  Very similar, we do have that.  In the particular farm
    33        I am now talking about where my brother lives, that is
    34        exactly what we do have in an old cattle yard.
    35
    36   MS. STEEL:  What I was trying to get at was you used traditional
    37        buildings and that was a bit confusing anyway, but the 350
    38        to 1,100 pigs per indoor unit, they do not all have free
    39        access to each other, they would be subdivided within that
    40        unit?
    41        A.  No, they do not have free access to each other.  That
    42        would be the most dangerous thing you could do.  That would
    43        be most cruel.
    44
    45   Q.   That is what I am trying to ask.   I am just trying to
    46        understand the situation.  Can you explain how many they
    47        are sub-divided into then?
    48        A.  They are subdivided into -- this varies from farm to
    49        farm depending on the size of the farm, the convenience of
    50        the farm, the conversion or utilisation of farm buildings. 
    51        It is no good to try and overcrowd animals into too small a 
    52        space.  I did not get too many.  It might be convenient to 
    53        have your sows in lots of six, you subdivide them, then you
    54        would actually subdivide your farrowing room to six, so you
    55        try to keep the sisters altogether all the time going
    56        through the system and on another farm it might be 12 sows.
    57
    58   Q.   Right.
    59        A.  It is best utilisation of space for the welfare of the
    60        animal.

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