Providing pigs with straw bedding improves welfare across multiple dimensions including thermal comfort, rooting behaviour, cleanliness, and stress reduction, yet most intensive systems use bare concrete.
The welfare benefits of straw for pigs are well-documented and significant. In barren slatted systems, pigs denied rooting substrate redirect oral manipulation toward pen-mates, causing tail biting that results in injury, infection, and potentially death. Routine tail docking, practised to reduce but not eliminate tail biting, is painful and is itself a welfare problem. Straw satisfies the fundamental behavioural need to root and manipulate substrate, dramatically reducing damaging behaviours. Thermal comfort is improved, particularly for vulnerable young piglets. Nest-building behaviour before farrowing is highly motivated in sows and can be expressed with straw, reducing frustration. The barrier to straw adoption is primarily management complexity and manure handling cost, not animal welfare considerations. Consumer and retailer demand for straw-bedded pork is the most effective lever for change.