Day 089 - 15 Feb 95 - Page 17


     
     1        things themselves.
     2
     3   Q.   Can I take the contract farmer first and ask you a couple
     4        of questions?  Suppose on a hot day -- the sort of weather
     5        we had last summer -- a contract farmer's employee had gone
     6        off down the pub because he was thirsty and, as a result of
     7        that, a whole lot of the stock had died or become ill
     8        because of the temperature in the shed being too high; what
     9        would the company do about that?
    10        A.  Well, the company take a very serious view of that kind
    11        of situation.  To avoid that happening we have produced a
    12        "heat stress procedure", as we call it, which covers the
    13        eventuality of hot weather right from the farm through the
    14        transport operation to the arrival at the slaughterhouse
    15        where there is a written procedure to cover all these
    16        eventualities.
    17
    18        So, on the farm, for example, there would certainly be an
    19        alarm system and the alarm system would automatically ring
    20        a telephone.  If there was a power cut, for example, we
    21        have emergency generators on farms.  We have at 23 degrees
    22        Centigrade, people are required to take extra precautions
    23        and on the farm this would be ventilation, providing extra
    24        ventilation.  In the transport operation, catching, we
    25        actually have mobile fans that we take to houses which we
    26        can set up for the catching operation.  In the factory we
    27        have a misting system and extra fans which are used to make
    28        the birds comfortable during the arrival.
    29
    30        So, all of this, during the very hot weather of last year
    31        (and our official veterinary surgeon in the plant could
    32        confirm this) has actually virtually eliminated any heat
    33        stress mortality.  We actually had a letter from him
    34        congratulating us on our performance.
    35
    36   Q.   So, on the ground last year the system worked, in other
    37        words?
    38        A.  It did, yes.
    39
    40   Q.   If depends, it would seem from your description, to a large
    41        extent on human efficiency?
    42        A.  That is correct.
    43
    44   Q.   What if the human efficiency chain were broken by the man
    45        that is down in the pub; what would you do to the
    46        contractor?
    47        A.  Well, the contract farmers, we have the ability to
    48        release them from that contract if they do not conform to
    49        our standards, and we can remove them.
    50 
    51   Q.   What would happen to one of your employees that was at 
    52        fault and, as a consequence of whose fault, a number of 
    53        birds died of heat stress?
    54        A.  Well, if that was the case and it was the employee's
    55        fault, I think it would be taken very seriously and
    56        I expect they would probably be released from their
    57        employment.
    58
    59   Q.   Can I just take one other example:  When the birds are
    60        fully grown, I think 42 days for females and 52 for males,

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