Sow reproductive welfare is compromised in systems that prioritize maximizing litter numbers over individual animal health, and longevity-focused management improves both welfare and sustainability.
Sow welfare across a reproductive lifetime reflects the compounding effects of management decisions — housing quality, nutrition, lameness prevention, and social management — that individually appear modest but together determine whether a sow lives 2 or 6 productive years. The high culling rates in conventional systems reflect systemic welfare failures: lame sows unable to compete for resources, over-conditioned sows with cardiovascular compromise, and reproductive failures tied to nutritional management problems. Longevity-focused management that prevents these welfare failures extends productive lifetime while reducing the welfare cost of early culling and replacement. The alignment between sow welfare and economic sustainability in longevity programs makes this an area where industry and welfare interests can advance together.