Pig pen design fundamentally determines the behavioral opportunities available to pigs. Evidence-based design features improve welfare within the constraints of commercial production.
The pen environment determines what behavioral options are available to pigs throughout their lives. A barren, rectangular pen with slatted floors and inadequate resources creates conditions where pigs are constantly competing and cannot express species-typical behaviors. Pen enrichment through complexity — barriers that create visual separation, different floor zones for different activities, appropriate feeding and drinking provision — reduces competition, aggression, and stress. Floor design affects physical welfare through hoof and joint health that accumulates across a lifetime. The cumulative effect of design decisions across millions of pen placements represents one of the largest tractable determinants of farm animal welfare globally.