What the evidence shows about the welfare outcomes, productivity impacts and management challenges of group gestation housing for sows.
The transition from gestation stalls to group housing represents the largest structural welfare reform in commercial pig farming in decades. The evidence accumulated from two decades of European experience shows that group housing with appropriate space, flooring and feeding management delivers better welfare outcomes across the range of behavioural and physiological measures — reduced stereotypy, improved locomotion, better bone density, reduced stress hormone profiles. The legitimate management challenges — aggression at mixing and feeding competition — are surmountable through ESF systems and mixing management protocols. Producers who have made the transition report that welfare improvements and productive performance align rather than conflict, undermining the economic objections that delayed adoption.