Outdoor pig production offers significant welfare advantages over indoor systems but requires careful management to avoid weather, predation, and biosecurity challenges.
Outdoor pig production delivers welfare benefits that indoor systems cannot match: access to natural substrate for rooting, ability to wallow and thermoregulate, and expression of the full behavioral repertoire that motivates pigs in enriched environments. Sows in outdoor systems perform more natural pre-farrowing nesting behavior and show lower baseline stress indicators than indoor counterparts. The management challenges of outdoor production — weather extremes, predation, paddock condition — are real but addressable with appropriate infrastructure and management skill. The welfare outcomes of well-managed outdoor systems are substantially better than indoor systems even when compared to well-managed enriched indoor housing. Consumer willingness to pay price premiums for outdoor pork creates the economic foundation that makes outdoor production viable.