Farrowing crates confine sows during birth and nursing in spaces too small to turn around, preventing natural behavior while reducing piglet crushing deaths — a genuine welfare tradeoff.
The farrowing crate debate reveals genuine welfare tension — sow welfare versus piglet welfare. Crates prevent sow movement and natural nesting behavior, causing frustration and chronic confinement stress. Free systems allow natural behavior but risk higher piglet crushing mortality. The welfare calculus depends on how one weighs sow suffering over weeks against piglet acute mortality. Evidence increasingly shows that well-designed free-farrowing systems with trained staff can achieve piglet mortality rates comparable to crates while dramatically improving sow welfare, resolving the tradeoff through better management rather than accepting it as inevitable.