The farrowing period — when sows give birth and nurse piglets — involves genuine welfare trade-offs between protecting piglets from crushing and allowing sows freedom of movement.
The farrowing system debate is one of the most genuine welfare trade-offs in pig farming: sow freedom versus piglet survival. But framing it as an irresolvable conflict misrepresents the evidence. Well-designed free farrowing systems — with appropriate bedding, farrowing rails, thermal management, and stockperson attention — achieve acceptable piglet mortality while dramatically improving sow welfare across weeks of farrowing and nursing. The choice is not between sow welfare and piglet welfare but between systems that prioritise production simplicity at the expense of sow welfare, and systems that require higher management investment to achieve good welfare for both. Progressive producers are demonstrating the latter is viable at commercial scale.