Environmental enrichment allows farm animals to express natural behaviours, improving welfare even within commercial production systems. Understanding what enrichment works and how to implement it is important for producers and advocates.
Enrichment is one of the most direct and evidence-based welfare interventions available in commercial farming. The research is clear that appropriate enrichment reduces suffering, decreases abnormal behaviour, and improves the physical health of farm animals. The barriers to implementation are primarily economic and motivational rather than technical — straw costs more than chains, and chains satisfy inspection requirements without providing genuine behavioural benefit. The welfare distinction between token enrichment that satisfies legal minima and effective enrichment that genuinely improves behaviour is a crucial one for certification schemes, inspectors, and advocates to make.