Day 088 - 13 Feb 95 - Page 07

     
     1        dead on arrival; is that right?
     2        A.  Yes, very, very bad welfare situation.
     3
     4   Q.   Yes.  Are there any advantages, apart from the fact that
     5        you do not want too lose seven per cent of your stock on
     6        the way to the slaughterhouse, so far as the commercial
     7        quality of the meat is concerned in having Halothane
     8        negative position of pigs?
     9        A.  Over the years we have learnt, as a family, that the
    10        quieter an animal is and the better it is handled, the more
    11        easily they are handled, the better the meat.  So,
    12        commercially it is a better proposition.
    13
    14   Q.   What characteristics in the meat does excessive stress in
    15        pigs create?
    16        A.  It creates PSE -- pale, soft, exudative muscle.
    17
    18   Q.   Can you now, please, open the brochure?  Turn over the
    19        first couple of pages because you have more pigs in a
    20        field, it is obvious, and look at the first one with a
         house or shed or something?
    22        A.  Yes.
    23
    24   Q.   Have you got that?
    25        A.  Yes, I have got it.
    26
    27   Q.   Starting on the left-hand side under a cartoon of an EEC
    28        pig -- at least it looks as though he is wearing a European
    29        Union logo on his hat -- there are some little pigs on
    30        straw in what look like wooden enclosures.  What stage of
    31        pigs are those?
    32        A.  These are the huts that I tried to describe earlier and
    33        the stage of these, these are put into these kennels at 24
    34        days.
    35
    36   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So those are what you call kennels or
    37        bungalows, are they?
    38        A.  Yes, that is correct.
    39
    40   MR. RAMPTON:  Was there a time when you weaned your pigs at 21
         days?
    42        A.  Yes, there was.
    43
    44   Q.   It is now 24?
    45        A.  Yes.
    46
    47   Q.   When did you make that change?
    48        A.  During the last year.
    49
    50   Q.   For what reason? 
    51        A.  Purely commercial reasons.  We found that we could 
    52        still wean at 24 days without any detriment commercially, 
    53        but also if, you know, the benefits were to take them back
    54        to 21, one could.
    55
    56   Q.   Is that true of all your pigs, both the indoor pigs and the
    57        outdoor pigs, they are all weaned at the same age, are
    58        they?
    59        A.  Yes.
    60