Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 27
1 giving them plenty of straw.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not sure I have the picture,
4 Mr. Rampton. Does that mean the side walls of the units
5 have these slatted walls, the Yorkshire boarding, as you
6 call it?
7 A. If I can describe it to you, sir, if we take the
8 courtroom as the place where the pigs lie and sleep, the
9 passageway is the dunging area and the dunging area outside
10 is where the Yorkshire boards, so that is free flowing air
11 so you disperse smell and ammonia and all things like
12 that. So they have an area to go out and urinate and to
13 muck.
14
15 MR. RAMPTON: Looking at this photograph, there appear to be
16 some parts of these buildings have raised roofs?
17 A. Yes, that is for ventilation.
18
19 Q. That is for ventilation?
20 A. That is for natural ventilation.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So the roof is lifted above the walls, as it
23 were?
24 A. Yes, so there is a gap along the side where the air can
25 come through and with the heat of the pigs ----
26
27 Q. And at the side of each building is what you call the
28 dunging area, the wall of which is this Yorkshire boarding?
29 A. Yes, the upper part of the wall, the upper part.
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: Are they good about using the dunging area or do
32 they go to the lavatory inside the pens?
33 A. I am not going to say you do not get an occasion pen,
34 but that is very, very unusual. I can say 99, again 99.9
35 per cent of the pigs will use the straw bedded area for
36 sleeping in.
37
38 Q. Dr. Gregory told us, Mr. Bowes, that the density of the
39 pigs in the finishing unit at 90 kilograms live weight was
40 .52 of a square metre each, yes?
41 A. That is correct.
42
43 Q. That is correct, is it?
44 A. Yes.
45
46 Q. That is what I was going to ask you.
47 A. Yes, .52, sir.
48
49 Q. Is that, I suppose it follows it must be, the densest they
50 ever are which is at those slaughterhouses?
51 A. Yes, that is at the finishing end when it is .5 per
52 square metre, so when the small pigs go in to begin with,
53 they have the same space all the time and so they can play
54 grouped, and to keep them warm we then put extra straw in
55 at the beginning of their life.
56
57 Q. What are they fed on while they are in the finishing unit?
58 A. A proper cereal based diet of this -- it is a stage on
59 from the weaner diet, it is now called the finishing diet.
60
