Feeding management in group-housed pigs significantly affects welfare through competition, aggression, and unequal resource access, with feeding system design having major implications for pig wellbeing.
Group feeding welfare reveals the fundamental tension between social group housing (good for welfare on many dimensions) and the competitive feeding behavior of pigs. A well-designed group housing system with poor feeding management can produce worse outcomes than gestation crates for subordinate animals: chronic hunger, bullying, and inability to access food combine to create sustained welfare deficits. Stockpeople may not recognize inadequate feeding space as a welfare problem because aggression around feeders is normalized and individual animals who are losing condition are difficult to identify in large groups. The transition from gestation crates to group housing - driven by welfare concerns - has in some cases been poorly implemented, creating new welfare problems while addressing old ones. Feeding system design (trough length, feeder depth, protected feeding stations) is a welfare intervention that farm animal scientists have studied extensively with clear evidence-based recommendations.