Outdoor pig systems offer significant welfare advantages over indoor intensive production but present challenges around parasite management, weather exposure, and land use impacts.
Outdoor pig systems deliver genuine welfare benefits. Rooting in soil, wallowing in mud, foraging for supplementary food, and expressing natural social structures are all possible in well-managed outdoor systems. Behavioral welfare indicators — tail condition, skin lesions, lameness rates, exploratory behavior — are consistently better in outdoor systems. Challenges include weather exposure, predation risk for piglets, and parasitic disease management. The welfare hierarchy within pig farming places outdoor, free-range systems clearly above indoor intensive regardless of minor productivity trade-offs.