Sheep feedlot finishing — bringing lambs and sheep to slaughter weight on high-energy grain rations in confined paddocks or yards — is increasingly common in Australia and other countries, raising welfare concerns about diet transition, social stress, and environmental deprivation.
Sheep feedlot welfare depends almost entirely on management quality. Done well — with appropriate diet transition, shading, foot care, and stable social groupings — feedlot finishing can be managed with acceptable welfare. Done poorly, it creates a cascade of welfare problems: acidosis from rapid grain introduction, heat stress from inadequate shade, fighting injuries from social disruption, and lameness from inadequate foot care. The environmental impoverishment of a bare dirt or gravel yard — compared to the pasture environment sheep evolved to inhabit — is itself a welfare cost that cannot be fully mitigated by good health management. Welfare standards for sheep feedlots have lagged behind equivalent cattle feedlot standards in most jurisdictions.