Group gestation housing for sows represents a significant welfare improvement over individual stalls, but social management and resource provision determine actual welfare outcomes.
Group gestation housing represents genuine welfare progress for sows: the ability to move, turn, engage in social behavior, and access environmental complexity provides for needs that individual stall confinement denies entirely. The welfare challenge of managing aggression in group systems is real but solvable with appropriate design — ESF systems that deliver individual rations without competitive feeding, adequate space allocation, stable group management, and enrichment provision together substantially reduce aggression-related welfare problems. The welfare case for group gestation is not that it is perfect but that it is substantially better than the alternative. Consumer purchasing choices that support cage-free and crate-free pork certification are the primary market driver for continued adoption.