The time animals spend in lairage before slaughter is a critical welfare period requiring management of feed, water, mixing, and handling.
Animals in lairage experience multiple simultaneous stressors: unfamiliar environment, mixing with strangers, handling by multiple people, food withdrawal, and anticipatory stress. Mixing pigs in lairage causes significant fighting and injury. Cattle and sheep without appropriate lairage conditions show elevated stress hormones at slaughter. Good lairage management including quiet handling, appropriate lighting, and minimized mixing significantly reduces pre-slaughter stress.