Group housing for pigs in all stages of production allows natural social behavior but requires careful management of aggression, competition, and space allocation to avoid welfare harms.
Group housing represents a welfare improvement over individual confinement — but only when managed well. Poorly managed group housing can produce worse welfare outcomes than well-managed individual housing. The key welfare risks are: mixing stress during regrouping, chronic subordination in poorly structured groups, and resource competition in overcrowded spaces. The solution is not to reject group housing but to invest in management practices that make it work: stable group composition, adequate space, ESF technology for sows, and careful mixing protocols. Consumer preference for group-housing certification should be accompanied by standards that address management quality, not just housing type.