The finishing phase when pigs grow to slaughter weight involves welfare challenges from crowding, social competition, and health problems that intensify as body mass increases.
Finishing phase welfare is paradoxically the period where welfare often deteriorates most while management attention often decreases due to slaughter proximity. The pigs that entered the finishing unit in adequate welfare conditions may deteriorate significantly in the final weeks as effective stocking density increases with growing body mass, accumulated pathogens increase disease pressure, and leg and joint problems compound with weight. The economic incentive to maximise the number of pigs per unit works against welfare at this phase. Welfare monitoring that tracks welfare outcomes throughout the finishing period rather than at entry provides early warning of deteriorating conditions. The welfare of pigs in the finishing phase directly affects slaughter welfare through their physical condition on arrival.