Day 093 - 28 Feb 95 - Page 58
1 not have any digestive problems.
2
3 Q. But you do not know where your particular cattle are coming
4 from?
5 A. That is correct.
6
7 Q. I am asking you about general conditions?
8 A. Well, there are no general conditions. Those are the
9 general conditions. In the United States there are
10 basically three major slaughterhouses or packing plants
11 that control, basically, the movement or supply of beef in
12 the United States. Those are the big guys who control,
13 they know the benefits of going through this or avoiding
14 these kinds of problems. It is the little guys, the
15 farmers who have a little feed lot that do not have the
16 expertise, that do not know this kind of research that do
17 not use that. So, in general it is the big guys, the big
18 three in the United States.
19
20 Q. Who are the big three then?
21 A. It is IBP, it is Cargill and Conagra, that is one, two,
22 three.
23
24 Q. What are they in control of? They are not in control of
25 all the individual feed lots?
26 A. No, but they have a very strong relationship with the
27 feed lots.
28
29 Q. With some of them?
30 A. With most of them. For example, the last one that I was
31 at was supplying IBP, 45 per cent of the volume of IBP.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If a steer has a digestive problem from being
34 switched too quickly to grain, does it stop feeding for a
35 period?
36 A. Yes, it does. It even happens in the wild when it is
37 not necessarily grain that they have to eat. It could be.
38 It is carbohydrates that is the problem. They can run into
39 a tree with apples and eat the apples and suffer the same
40 problems. They can get into a -----
41
42 Q. Very well. So far as the farmer or whoever you choose to
43 call him is concerned, it is counter-productive if he lets
44 this happen?
45 A. Oh absolutely, yes.
46
47 MS. STEEL: The most common of the painful digestive problems
48 is rumenitis liver abscess complex which affects about
49 eight per cent of all the grain-fed cattle, is that
50 correct?
51 A. I do not know. I do not know where you are getting
52 your data from. I do not know.
53
54 Q. Is it right that the National Research Council of the
55 National Academy of Scientists estimates that sickness,
56 injury and premature death of cattle represents an economic
57 loss of $4.6 billion a year in the United States?
58 A. I do not know, but can you go one step at time again
59 and tell me?
60
