Pigs are highly social animals with complex group dynamics. Group housing provides welfare benefits over individual confinement but requires management of aggression, particularly at mixing and regrouping events.
Pig social behavior is a double-edged welfare consideration: group housing provides social stimulation and companionship that isolated animals lack, but poorly managed group mixing causes severe injury from fighting. The key is stable social groups — pigs that grow up together establish relationships without chronic fighting. Management practices that minimize regrouping, provide enrichment to redirect agonistic behavior, and create spatial complexity for avoidance dramatically reduce mixing-related welfare harm. Electronic sow feeding systems enable group sow housing while protecting individual feed access from competition.