Day 115 - 06 Apr 95 - Page 14
1 why the use of straw houses is less intensive than the use
2 of insulated arcs?
3 A. Well, the whole system that I saw -----
4
5 Q. I am sorry, I know what you say about the system. I want
6 to know how the form of accommodation that bears upon the
7 question of intenseness or intensity, or whatever the word
8 might be, intenseness?
9 A. I think that particular aspect is part of a bigger
10 function of intensification. I was only saying that, as
11 far as I am concerned, the, what shall I say, gentler
12 conditions that apply in the straw bale system are, to my
13 mind, less stressful than the sort of things that you have
14 in arcs, but I will agree with you that the arcs are better
15 than a totally inside system.
16
17 Q. How do you measure, you personally, from your own
18 experience, the level of stress imposed on a sow in an
19 insulated arc as opposed to a sow in a straw house?
20 A. That is a matter that one can only put in terms of
21 animal behaviour, in terms of experience of observing
22 animals. Of course, if you have the means (and it has been
23 done on some occasions) you can measure what are called
24 stresser hormones or biochemical variables that will give
25 you some idea of stress.
26
27 Now, scientists base those reactions entirely on what we,
28 as human beings, manifest so you may say, well, that is
29 anthropomorphisation, but we do use those generally as
30 scientists and we can judge from the activity of the pigs
31 the sort of activities that they manifest and also their
32 reaction to human beings.
33
34 Q. Describe the difference in the activities as between a sow
35 who lives in a field that has for a shelter a straw house
36 and a sow who lives in the same or similar field but has
37 for a shelter an insulated arc with whatever else goes with
38 that. What are the significant symptomatic differences in
39 behaviour which lead you to propose that the one suffers
40 significantly less stress than the other?
41 A. If I could compare two systems that I have seen, I have
42 not actually seen Mr. Bowes, so let us say, but I have seen
43 something similar. A particular item that I noticed was
44 that the sows in the Soil Association system were very good
45 at housekeeping. They turfed the piglets out and did a bit
46 housekeeping, sort of Monday morning housekeeping.
47
48 They were very assiduous in this. They were very
49 friendly. There were not many of these straw houses in the
50 area. They had a good area nearby to dig and so on.
51
52 In the other system which has more intensive with more of
53 these arcs, I found that the conditions were not as good.
54 There did not seem to be so much housekeeping, if I could
55 use that phrase, by the sows. They seemed to be more
56 apprehensive of the approach of human beings. They did not
57 have such a good area nearby to exercise their rooting and
58 wallowing habits. So, I deduced from that example that the
59 straw housing was generally better.
60
