Group housing alternatives to gestation crates represent a significant welfare improvement for pregnant sows, but require careful management to achieve welfare benefits while preventing aggression injuries.
Group housing for gestating sows is unambiguously better for sow welfare than gestation crate confinement. Sows in groups can walk, turn, lie comfortably, engage with conspecifics, and express a broader range of natural behaviors. The welfare benefits are measurable in reduced stereotypy, better physical condition, and behavioral indicators of positive emotional states. The challenges of group housing — aggression management, individual feeding monitoring, and pen design — are real but solvable through well-established management practices. The transition from crate to group housing is one of the most significant welfare improvements available in commercial pig production, and industry resistance is primarily economic rather than technical.