Beef And Dairy Network - Episode 4 - Eli Roberts

Episode Date: October 21, 2015

Mike Bubbins joins in this month as we hear from slaughterhouse owner Eli Roberts about how he ensures the safety of his staff and there's also news about the upcoming British Beef Council Annual Dinner and Barn Dance. By Benjamin Partridge and Mike Bubbins. Music: "Simple Duet" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Stock media provided by Setuniman/Pond5.com and Soundrangers/Pond5.com

The Beef and Dairy Network podcast is sponsored by Graze-X, the latest grass replacement pellet from Mitchell's. If it's not Mitchell's, get back in the truck. Graze-X can be fed to cattle, sheep, hogs, and outside of the European Union, your non-pregnant workforce. For a free gift with any order over 15 tons, use the code BEEFANDDAIRY and choose a Gulf Visor, shoehorn, or a milking smock bearing your star sign. Hello, and welcome to the Beef and Dairy Network podcast, the number one podcast for those

involved or just interested in the production of beef animals and dairy herds. The Beef and Dairy Network podcast is the podcast companion to the Beef and Dairy Network website and a printed magazine, brought to you by Grazex. If you were listening to the Grazex ad at the beginning of the show, I'd just like to say, if you're choosing your free gift, I can personally recommend the shoe horn. I use it now every time I put my shoes on and I very rarely have to butter my ankles, something I would often resort to before the arrival of the promotional horn. Later in the podcast, news of the British Beef Council annual dinner and bar dance. But first, this week saw the publication of a report by the Meat Industry Employees Association which says that around half of abattoir workers have experienced mental health issues,

with up to 30% of these cases falling into the very serious category. To shed some light on this, earlier this week I spoke to Eli Roberts, owner of Roberts Slaughterhouse in South Wales. I began by asking him if there is something inherently depressing about the mechanised slaughter of meat beasts.

I don't see why it's got to be depressing. I'm providing a service. You know, and not just for my clients, the local community, but for the animals themselves. You know, I think it's very important that you bear that in mind. This is what I say to the boys who sometimes get down in the dumps.

I say, if you were born a cow, right? God forbid you were born a cow. You're going to end up either, there's only two ways you're going to end up, right? On someone's plate or on someone's feet. Right? And that must be very depressing for the cow, I'd imagine. But that's the life they're born into. So what you're really doing, if you think about it, that's what I say to them,

is you're helping them to leave this life. Like digging a task. dignity you know it's a bleak old life if you're a coward and you're helping them to leave this world do you do you do anything consciously to to ensure the mental health of your staff now we'd always have a lot but you want to come up the floor someday bring bring bring whoever you like with it you see the fun we have we have fun we have. We have a Skittles night twice a month. We play Skittles. We have every Christmas, we have a secret Santa. What about something more like counselling maybe? Don't need counselling, Dave.

Don't need counselling. You've got a Skittles team. You know, some of the boys come up to me with the overalls on and they're wiping their eyes and there's you know there's blood running down their faces and oh i can't do this anymore it's this soul destroyer and i said hey you just said it in him soul right that arm has got a soul and you've released it now get back out there dry your eyes right have a quick sponge off of the blood and go and enjoy

yourself right and spread that love to the belt there, right? Because if they can see you crying and having second thoughts, how are they feeling? They see me, big smile on my face, right? Finger poised over the red button, bang. Everyone's happy. Do you think you need to be a specific kind of person

to go into your business? What's that mean? So that's your definition of take life in your stride? Yeah. So that's your definition of take life in your stride? That's right, yeah. Yeah. Do as they say. Keep killing until they say not to kill anymore. And then clock off, go home, and come in tomorrow and kill some more.

More from that interview later in the show. Now for news of the upcoming British Beef Council annual dinner and barn dance, which, we are very pleased to say, is this year sponsored by us here at the Beef and Dairy Network, after the council's 10-year sponsorship contract with BAE Systems came to an end. This year's event will take place at the Hotel Gallipoli in Aldershot on the 10th of November, and if you'd like to be there, tickets are still available. Beef Council Chairman Lester Crabtree has sent me an advert for the event that he'd like me to play for you. Please come to the upcoming British Beef Council Annual Dinner and Barn Dance,

incorporating the annual Beef Council Awards, all of which is this year sponsored by the Beef and Dairy Network. The night promises Bon Ami, a raffle to raise money for the Biafran National Front, and providing an after-dinner speech will be none other than Norwich funnyman Les Cheese, formerly of Double Act Cheese and Onion. Formerly of Double Act, Cheese and Onion. After the success of his appearance at last year's event, Lace Cheese is back. Guaranteed to bring the ass down with a mixture of salty quips and shaggy dog stories.

All the while, keeping it on the right side of blue. He will also present the awards ceremony which will be followed by a rendition of the national anthem. There will also be a collection for Cheese and Onion double act partner, Sid Onion, who of course is in prison in Turkey. Price of admission includes a full beef dinner, including desserts, aperitifs and a track course I'll see you there So there you go

for tickets which are priced at a reasonable £450 please see the website www.britishbeefcouncil.net Now back to our interview with slaughterhouse owner Eli Roberts. The report by the Meat Industry Employees Association also pointed towards quite high numbers of physical injuries happening at abattoirs in the UK.

Do you have any comments on that? I mean, it's like any other job, isn't it? It's like any other job. You could have accidents now. Any walk of life. I mean, you could break other job isn't it? It's like any other job you could have accidents now any walk of life, you could break a leg walking up a bus couldn't you? You could but you would reasonably expect there to be

a good level of training and health and safety in an abattoir, do you have those kind of processes in place? No need no need, what's the best way of learning anything? How do you learn to walk? To go to school? Learn to walk? Do you have tutors come in? Learn to walk? Does dim angen. Does dim angen. Beth yw'r ffordd gorau i chi ddysgu unrhyw beth? Sut ydych chi'n mynd i'r gweithio? I fynd i'r ysgol? Dysgu i'r gweithio? Felly mae'r ddwytydd yn dod i mewn? Dysgu i'r gweithio?

Felly, wyt ti'n gwybod beth wyt ti'n ei wneud? Yn yr un ffordd yr oedd pawb arall yn ei wneud. Felly, byddwn i'n mynd i'r gweithio, byddwn i'n cael fy nghymryd, byddwn i'n cael fy nghymryd, byddwn i'n cael fy nghymryd, byddwn i'n cael fy nghymryd. Yn ystod 40 mlynedd yn ôl, byddwn i'n mynd i'r gweithio. Yn yr un peth, does dim angen. Beth i'n dweud? Beth i'n dweud?

Os ydyn nhw wedi mynd i rhai o'r cyfarfodydd iechyd a diogelwch, yn iawn? O, mae fy nghymryd yn dod i'r gweithio. Beth i'n dweud? Beth i'n dweud? Beth i'n dweud? Beth i'n dweud? Beth i'n dweud? Beth i'n dweud?

Beth i'n dweud? Beth i'n d same thing here no need who's to say who's to say if i went to some of these these fancy health and safety meetings right oh i got my badge i got my badge and up in safety i got you look at my certificate on the wall there and you're so busy looking at my certificate on the wall there you've fallen backwards into a bandsaw top yourself in half but do you in in that little scenario and i don't know if that's something that actually happened or whether it's something you've imagined well anything could happen oh that's my bad year like very good this where's that from oh that's from the campaign for the ethical treatment of animals that badge oh let's have a closer look oh no i've lost my foot then bang you're in the big vat of acid that we use to clean the bones off

and what's what's caused that then health and safety but do you think i mean these things potentially could happen but do you think this is these are likely scenarios you're sketching out well it's not for me to say who's to say because i don't do health and safety but i haven't prevented more accidents than if I'd done it. I'm just, I'm just, have you been present or had reliable reports of accidents happening, for example, being chopped in half by a bandsaw because of somebody showing their certificate or badge that they've got on a health and safety course? Well, not as many, not as many words. I mean,'t i haven't but i've seen people i've seen people tripping over plenty of times and why do you trip because you're not concentrating right well my my staff are constant there's nothing to distract them there's no

certificates no badges no blinking you know hard hats or leather gloves and that nonsense to distract them concentrate right you've got to focus, right? Because they've got no protection. I take all the guards off the source because it's quicker. They've got no protection. It makes you focus. It sharpens the mind. You lose a finger, guess what?

Next shift, you're thinking, right, come on now, don't lose any more fingers. The bloke there, right, Dave is named, the bloke with four fingers is the most focused bloke in the place because he knows right one slip he got no fingers is is david a happy man he seems happy enough yeah he didn't speak no one ever used to speak but uh yeah you think he's happy enough okay now the report uh was published today on the Meat Industry Employees Association website. And also alongside that report was a database which they published, which is a searchable database of UK abattoirs.

Right. Where after the inspections that are carried out, you can look at the scores that they've got for safety and for mental health, etc. Right. they've got for safety and for mental health etc I'm just interested because I can't, we've done a lot of searching but we can't find your abattoir on the database

you won't find it either I have some busy body right from one of the big cities like I don't know Bridgend or somewhere coming down the earth sticking their nose in get real world but it is a legal requirement says who? says thean union you gotta be pulling my leg i mean i've been to spain they flipping chucking donkeys off the top of church

halls i've seen people chopping up meat on a flipping wooden block in the middle of a town square flies everywhere you my foot hey one word pamplona good on Hey, one word, Pamplona. Go down the library and look at that. Pamplona. Spain. EU. Because who won the war? Against oppression. Which war? The war. The Second World War. Who won the Second World War? Yes.

The Allies won the Second World War? That's right. And don't give me any Allied nonsense. You know what I mean? Us. They wouldn't be able to come round here telling me that I got substandard safety procedures, or that they've had grievances, or that they've had employees losing limbs and fingers and dying, right? If we hadn't won the war. Food for thought.

So that's it for this week, but if you're after more beef and dairy news, get over to the website now where you can read all the usual stuff as well as a series of how-to videos showing you how to install a cattle grid at your home and your chance to win a thousand calves and in our off-topic section a picture of the biggest moth you're ever likely to see

Until next time Beef out beef out