Outdoor pig farming provides a more naturalistic environment than indoor intensive systems, but welfare quality varies significantly with management and environmental complexity.
Outdoor pig farming offers significant welfare advantages over indoor intensive systems but is not uniformly welfare-positive. Pigs in outdoor paddocks can root, forage, wallow, and socialise in ways that indoor systems cannot support. However, outdoor welfare depends critically on management: overstocked paddocks become muddy wasteland with no forage, cold wet weather without adequate shelter causes thermal stress, and inadequate shade in summer heat causes sunburn and overheating. Rotation of paddocks prevents welfare degradation from overuse. Woodland or diverse vegetation access provides the most complex and stimulating environment. Outdoor pig welfare standards need to specify environmental complexity requirements alongside basic input standards to ensure the welfare advantages of outdoor systems are realised in practice.