Outdoor pig farming provides significant welfare benefits but also creates specific challenges around extreme weather, predation, parasite burden, and health management.
Outdoor pig welfare is genuinely better than indoor intensive housing on most welfare measures, but requires active management of specific outdoor welfare risks: heatwaves require shade and wallows; wet winters create mud that causes foot problems; parasite management without routine prophylactic treatment requires monitoring and strategic treatment. The welfare cost of outdoor challenges is lower than the welfare cost of indoor confinement for most welfare criteria — outdoor systems represent a better welfare trade-off when managed well.