Day 113 - 03 Apr 95 - Page 19

     
     1        dairy cow who is producing milk for, essentially, well, for
     2        a calf and human consumption, but humans take it all, and
     3        she will be yielding perhaps up to 30 litres.
     4
     5   Q.   10 times.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just pause there.  Use the suckler cow as an
     8        example, how often do they breed?
     9        A.  They are bred because they are put to the bull so they
    10        do breed about once a year from that point of view.  But,
    11        of course, they do not have the strain of being milked so
    12        heavily.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:  You mentioned in passing about the necessity
    15        because of this high level of production for the dairy cow
    16        to have a high concentrate feed, protein feed, would that
    17        include soya?
    18        A.  Yes.  High concentrate would include what are called
    19        compounds, all sorts of offals from brewing, baking, soya,
    20        fish meal; those are the main ones.
    21
    22   Q.   So just on the soya subject, how prevalent is the use of
    23        soya feed in the UK cattle market?
    24        A.  It is very prevalent.  It is a matter of balancing the
    25        prices.  We have all sorts of financial matters, quotas for
    26        one thing, as to whether to stimulate more production of
    27        milk, so whether one would use a more concentrated feed,
    28        whether fish meal is cheaper than soya, whether there is
    29        cheaper sources of protein from other cereals.  So, the
    30        farmer and the feed compound are always juggling about with
    31        these matters.
    32
    33   Q.   Sticking with cattle, before moving on to pigs, have you
    34        dealt with the life cycle, apart from slaughter which we
    35        will come to?
    36        A.  All right, if you like, I will leave slaughter.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Just wait.  Let Mr. Morris ask you the
    39        question.
    40
    MR. MORRIS:  Yes.  Leaving aside slaughter for the moment, are
    42        there any other aspects of the life cycle?
    43        A.  Yes.
    44
    45   Q.   Of course there is the male?
    46        A.  The bull calf, yes.  Well, what happens to the bull
    47        calf out of the dairy beef is that it might go into veal
    48        production, so it might be exported for veal production.
    49        I mean, we do not know at the moment whether that trade
    50        will continue because it is in great debate, as you 
    51        probably now at the moment. 
    52 
    53   Q.   You have concerns about the welfare of those particular ---
    54        A.  Yes.
    55
    56   Q.   -- calves?
    57        A.  Yes.  I have got -----
    58
    59   Q.   Can you summarise that in a sentence?
    60        A.  Well, the concerns we have is that they are subjected