Outdoor pig farming offers significant welfare benefits but also presents unique challenges including thermal stress, predation, and parasite pressure requiring active management.
Outdoor systems provide pigs with behavioral freedom unavailable in intensive housing — rooting, foraging, wallowing, and natural social interactions. However, outdoor systems introduce new welfare risks: sunburn, hyperthermia, hypothermia, and higher parasite burden. Welfare-positive outdoor systems require active management of shade, shelter, wallowing opportunities, and parasite monitoring.