Day 019 - 27 Jul 94 - Page 10

     
     1
         Q.   Yes, and especially if you only visited one shed?
     2        A.  This is true.
 
     3   Q.   Do you know the mortality figures for Sun Valley poultry?
              A.  They are given in my report for the unit under
     4        consideration and they are given, I believe, on page 4.
 
     5   MR. RAMPTON:  It is the last paragraph on page 4.  The middle
              one.  Sorry.
     6        A.  I believe it is 2. something per cent.
 
     7   MS. STEEL:   That would be up to the time when you visited?
              A.  Correct.
     8
         Q.   Do you know in terms of mortality rate for male broilers
     9        aged 42 to 53 days?
              A.  No, I do not know that.
    10
         Q.   It would be likely to increase, that figure, would it not?
         A.  The highest mortality is usually experienced during
              the first seven days of life.  So, to say it would rise
    12        beyond, between 42 and 53 is a little presumptuous.  I
              would not like to go so far as to say that.
    13
         Q.   Does that mortality rate actually include the mortality
    14        rate at the hatchery?
              A.  No, it does not.
    15
         Q.   That would be during the time when most deaths would be
    16        likely?
              A.  It is very difficult to estimate hatchery deaths
    17        because do you include, for instance, eggs which have not
              pipped?  That is, eggs -- sorry -- where the chick has not
    18        started to emerge or come out.  Do you include that in
              mortality?  You have to break open the egg to see whether
    19        the chick in that situation is alive or dead.
 
    20   Q.   What about the ones hatched?
              A.  In that situation it depends a lot upon on how long
         the chicks are held in the hatchery before dispatch to the
              individual units.  In the case of Sun Valley, I have been
    22        to their hatchery.  Their hatchery is centrally based
              relative to their farms, and I would imagine that the
    23        distribution time, the holding and distribution time, is
              low relative to many other companies.
    24
         Q.   What would you say that their holding and distribution
    25        time is?
              A.  If they crop the final incubator in the morning, they 
    26        would then box and they might be sent holding over night 
              or they might send out in the afternoon but, let us say, 
    27        they are holding over night, taking it at worst, so it
              would be the next morning when the chicks are placed.
    28
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You mean the next morning after the day on
    29        which they have been born?
              A.  They have been cropped.
    30
         Q.   That is when they are cropped, when are they cropped?