Outdoor farrowing systems allow sows to express natural nesting behavior, significantly improving welfare outcomes compared to indoor confinement systems.
Outdoor farrowing welfare demonstrates how allowing sows to express strongly motivated natural behavior transforms the farrowing experience. In indoor crates, sows display repetitive nesting behavior against the bars - clear evidence of frustration from inability to perform a highly motivated behavior. In outdoor systems, sows spend hours building elaborate nests before farrowing - behavior that appears to prepare them physiologically and behaviorally for birth. The welfare cost of indoor crate farrowing - frustration, restricted movement, inability to respond to piglets - is substantially eliminated in well-managed outdoor systems.