Day 103 - 14 Mar 95 - Page 11

     
     1   Q.   So on those occasions you did not consider that it was the
     2        employees' fault?
     3
     4   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You again started that with "so".  It is a
     5        complete non sequitur to me that an employee should be
     6        sacked because they have done something which has been
     7        responsible for something which is their fault.
     8
     9   MS. STEEL:   It is because in his evidence-in-chief he said:
    10         "What would happen to one of your employees that was at
    11        fault and as a consequence of whose fault a number of birds
    12        died of heat stress?"  And he said:  "They would be
    13        released from employment".
    14
    15   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is another point entirely.  You were
    16        inferring that because chickens in a shed had died through
    17        heat stress and the managers had not been sacked,
    18        therefore, he did not consider that it was their fault.
    19
    20   MS. STEEL:  It was a question.  I am sorry if it did not sound
         very question-like but it was a question.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Very well.  Put it as a question then.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:  On those occasions did you consider it was the
    26        employees' fault or not?
    27        A.  Most occasions when this has happened, it has not been
    28        the employee's fault.  There have been exceptional
    29        circumstances of a combination of temperature and humidity,
    30        and I can think of one particular example in the summer of
    31        1989 -- no, summer of 1991, when we had temperatures in the
    32        Herefordshire area of 95 to 97 degrees Fahrenheit with very
    33        high humidity, and birds were dying in those temperatures
    34        through no fault of anybody's.
    35
    36   Q.   You could have thinned out the sheds, could you not?
    37        A.  If we had known that there were going to be
    38        temperatures of that nature, possibly, but there were birds
    39        dying of heat stress at lots of different stocking levels.
    40        It was just exceptionally hot.  We certainly did not blame
         the farm managers for the loss of those birds.
    42
    43   Q.   Do farmyard chickens ever die of heat stress?
    44        A.  Not that I am aware of.
    45
    46   Q.   Over what period of days were these chickens dying of heat
    47        stress?
    48        A.  In the incidents I referred to?
    49
    50   Q.   Yes. 
    51        A.  It lasted for a day. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Just one day?
    54        A.  A 24-hour period.
    55
    56   Q.   Is that always the case?
    57        A.  It is generally short duration, yes.
    58
    59   Q.   Did that affect all the sheds on some farms?
    60        A.  No.