Day 019 - 27 Jul 94 - Page 07
1 Q. When would you say the peak was?
A. I would not like to say, but I think that farmers are
2 not stocking so densely as, for instance, when I was at
college going around farms, the stocking densities
3 I thought were particularly high then.
4 Q. Which was in 197 --
A. I finished college in 1973.
5
MR. JUSTICE BELL: Was it before the middle or late 80s, the
6 peak, on your own judgment?
A. I would be guessing, but I would say it was after.
7 Since I was at college it has been starting to come back,
in my view, but I do not speak with any back up data to
8 support that.
9 MS. STEEL: Would you feel it has come down within the last 10
years as well?
10 A. I do not know, probably, but I honestly do not know.
All I have is two points in time which I am comparing with
11 in my mind.
12 Q. In general, are more people involved in working in
agriculture now than they were, say, 40 years ago?
13 A. I believe, from what I have been told, there are less
people working in agriculture than 40 years ago.
14
Q. Would you agree that intensive methods of farming,
15 especially for pigs and poultry, the dairy and beef
industry, are continually developing their practices to
16 reduce the element of human labour?
A. It is true that human labour is one of the cost items
17 in production. In the case of pigs and poultry, the major
cost item is the feed. The labour is possibly the second
18 most expensive depending on the farm you are considering.
So in terms of economy of production, economies probably
19 have been made in both areas.
20 Q. Mr. Rampton was saying yesterday -- he was trying to
criticise opponents of the meat industry for throwing
21 people out of work. So, in effect, you would agree that
intensive methods of farming have resulted in less people
22 being employed in the agricultural area?
A. It has certainly facilitated that. Can I add one
23 point? There are extensive farming systems which would
also facilitate less labour input if they were done, say,
24 on a ranching scale; easy care ranching systems involve
low labour input as well and low cost. There are two ways
25 of achieving the goal of decreasing labour costs.
26 Q. But that is the aim of the industry, to try to employ as
few people as possible?
27 A. It is up to the individual farmers and the individual
enterprises to decide how he manages his costs in total,
28 and some farmers are going along that route, or have been
going along that route over the years.
29
Q. Going on to poultry, we were talking about environment/index.html">litter
30 yesterday as in what is on the floor of the sheds. The
use of the word "environment/index.html">litter" in this situation is more akin to
