Outdoor access for pigs delivers welfare benefits through natural behaviour expression, including rooting, foraging, and wallowing, that cannot be provided indoors.
Outdoor access delivers welfare benefits that cannot be replicated indoors - natural substrate for rooting, wallowing for thermoregulation, and complexity and novelty from a variable environment. These are not luxuries but fundamental welfare needs of a species that evolved for extensive foraging. Well-managed outdoor systems that address parasite and predation risks provide some of the highest welfare outcomes available in commercial pig production.