Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 04
1 A. Yes, it is.
2
3 Q. How long has your family been in pigs, if I can call it
4 that?
5 A. If you are talking about the Bowes' family, I can
6 actually remember very clearly working with my grandmother
7 as a child looking after her pigs, and also reference was
8 made to my grandfather who is affectionately known as
9 "Dr. Banham", as an expert pig keeper.
10
11 Q. Where, generally speaking, or perhaps I can ask it this
12 way, does your company own enough land of its own to keep
13 100,000 pigs?
14 A. No, we do not. What we have developed with East
15 Anglian farmers is a system whereupon we will supply the
16 expertise for those pigs that we cannot produce ourselves,
17 and using their farms and their own expertise in labour,
18 and they supply the water and the straw and we will supply
19 the food and, again as I have said, the veterinary
20 expertise and the management expertise for those pigs on
21 the individual farms, and there is something like, we will
22 be involved with 70 other farmers doing this -- a small
23 co-operative, if you wish.
24
25 Q. How closely are you able to monitor or keep an eye on the
26 activities of that small co-operative, as you would call
27 it?
28 A. We have a pig management team that is headed by Jim
29 Berlin. It is based at the Head Offices. They are in
30 daily contact with those pig farmers on the question of
31 feed supplies etc., and also those farmers have to report
32 to us daily on the condition of pigs if they have a
33 problem.
34
35 Q. How often does your team make a visit to one of these
36 farms?
37 A. If all is going well on the farm they will not visit.
38 If there is a problem they will, but it is likewise done in
39 a random fashion as well because one has to check also, but
40 there is a problem in the organisation as such because we
41 have to be aware of the prevention of disease being spread
42 from one unit to another if it does occur. So, we have to
43 be very careful in our management of that.
44
45 Q. Do the East Anglian farmers who assist you or co-operate
46 with you in this way have outdoor pigs as well as indoor
47 pigs?
48 A. Yes.
49
50 Q. It is probably best if you unclip the rings on that file
51 and take the brochure out because it is easier to look at.
52 First of all, if you look at the cover, front and back, it
53 is all one photograph, is it not?
54 A. That is correct.
55
56 Q. What do we see represented in that photograph, what pigs
57 are those?
58 A. These are sows and bores or gilts and this is a
59 breeding herd, if you wish, where the bores are there to
60 service the gilts.
