Intensive indoor sheep systems raise welfare concerns distinct from traditional pastoral sheep farming, with specific challenges around space, social behavior, and respiratory health.
Intensive indoor sheep welfare presents different challenges from traditional extensive systems. Housing protects sheep from weather extremes but creates new welfare challenges: restricted movement, elevated disease transmission from density, and higher foot health problems from inappropriate flooring. Respiratory disease outbreaks in housed sheep flocks cause significant welfare harm and are linked to inadequate ventilation and overcrowding. The welfare of housed sheep depends critically on stocking density management, ventilation quality, flooring appropriateness, and monitoring intensity. Indoor lambing provides welfare benefits through supervision but requires management skill to avoid creating crowded, stressful conditions that compromise both ewe and lamb welfare.