Day 096 - 03 Mar 95 - Page 13

     
     1        me.  Just listen a moment because it is difficult for me to
     2        see -- you may explain it to me -- how the number of
     3        finishing units on a particular farm helps in relation to
     4        those matters.  I would have thought that they would vary
     5        according to the number of pigs being reared on the farm.
     6
     7   MS. STEEL:   It does not really.  It was just that I was
     8        confused because he said there were only two finishing
     9        units but that there were four in that photograph.  That is
    10        why I was asking about that, but I understand it.
    11
    12   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The reason I say it is not just because I am
    13        anxious to press on (as, indeed, you have said from time to
    14        time you are), looking back over the evidence we have had
    15        in recent days I am anxious about -- some of it is very
    16        pertinent, but some of it is a lot of information about
    17        what goes on which, I have to say, I find it difficult to
    18        relate to what, so far as I can gather from reading the
    19        pleadings and from the witness statements which you have
    20        supplied, will be the real issues at the end of the day.
         I am reluctant to interrupt because I do not want to
    22        interrupt so as to throw you in your cross-examination.
    23        But, at the end of the day, that is what I have to keep my
    24        eyes on and that is what you have to keep your eyes on.
    25
    26        What is there that you can get in cross-examination from a
    27        witness like Mr. Bowes?   What is it that in
    28        cross-examination you can fairly get from Mr. Bowes which
    29        you will be able to press home as a point, justifying what
    30        is said in the leaflet?
    31
    32   MS. STEEL:   I just want to check something.  I did actually
    33        remember right.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, very well.
    36
    37   MS. STEEL:  Dr. Gregory said -- it is not entirely how I said it
    38         -- that the indoor accommodation he had seen was referred
    39        to as the Suffolk barn and he said, "... which is a system
    40        which is becoming more common now in the industry".  (To
         the witness):  So, is that something that has been used by
    42        all your contract farmers and suppliers for the last five
    43        years or is that something that has changed over the last
    44        five years?
    45        A.  No.  I would say that East Anglia has been very much
    46        the leaders in this system that has been going on for
    47        absolutely years, hence the name "Suffolk".  You know,
    48        there are oceans of farms who have been having this
    49        system.  We had it all, well, my father had it, my
    50        grandfather had some.  It is so simple, so easy, so 
    51        comfortable.  There is nothing better, we don't think, and 
    52        it has been there a long time.  I am not saying every 
    53        farmer in East Anglia has had it, but that is dominant.  It
    54        is very dominant in East Anglia.
    55
    56   Q.   Has the stocking density within those units always been the
    57        same or has that changed over the last five or 10 years?
    58        A.  Definitely that has not changed for us, I can assure
    59        you of that.
    60