Outdoor pig production provides behavioral welfare benefits but creates specific health and welfare challenges. Understanding both sides informs welfare-conscious production choices.
Outdoor pig production represents an important welfare improvement over intensive indoor systems for most behavioral welfare measures. Pigs in outdoor systems can root, wallow in mud for thermoregulation, explore large areas, and express social behaviors in stable family groups. The behavioral enrichment of outdoor systems reduces the frustration-driven behaviors that are endemic in intensive indoor systems. However, outdoor welfare is not unconditional: extreme heat without wallowing areas, cold without shelter, wet conditions without dry resting areas, and high parasite burdens all cause welfare harm in poorly managed outdoor systems. The welfare standard for outdoor pig production requires attention to both the behavioral opportunity and the management of outdoor-specific challenges.