Pen design has profound effects on pig welfare, with space allocation, layout, and enrichment provision directly shaping behaviour, health, and stress levels.
Pen design translates directly into daily welfare experience for pigs across their entire production lives. Inadequate space prevents natural locomotion, increases aggression through forced proximity, and reduces individual pigs ability to perform essential comfort and social behaviours. The design of feeding arrangements critically affects social stress: long troughs with individual feeding spaces, or automated multiple-point feeders, reduce competition compared to single point feeding. Spatial complexity through barriers and varied zones allows pigs to manage social relationships more effectively. Welfare-progressive pen design is not necessarily more expensive than conventional design when the full costs of reduced aggression, lower antibiotic use, and better growth rates are accounted for.