Outdoor pig systems offer significant welfare advantages over intensive indoor production, but face challenges including extremes of weather, parasites, predation, and variable management quality.
Well-managed outdoor pig systems represent one of the most significant welfare improvements available within commercial pig production. Pigs in outdoor systems can express the full range of natural behaviours — rooting, exploratory foraging, wallowing, and social interaction — that are strongly suppressed in indoor confinement. Physiological and behavioural indicators of chronic stress are substantially lower in outdoor systems. However, welfare in outdoor systems is not guaranteed: inadequate shelter causes thermal stress in both winter cold and summer heat; poor wallow provision in summer leads to sunburn and heat stress in pink-skinned breeds; parasite burdens can be higher without proactive management; and lameness from poorly managed ground conditions is a real risk. Management quality is the decisive factor in outdoor pig welfare outcomes.