Farm Animals

Pig Welfare and Welfare Assessment Tools 2026

Practical welfare assessment tools enable farmers, vets, and auditors to evaluate pig welfare systematically and identify improvement priorities.

Key Facts

Welfare Quality Protocols for pigs assess 32 welfare measures across four principles
On-farm welfare assessment takes 2-4 hours for a herd of 500 sows
Benchmarking against sector peers motivates welfare improvement more than compliance auditing
Digital tools enable photo and video evidence collection integrated with scoring systems
Abattoir welfare data complements on-farm assessment with objective post-mortem measures

Welfare Considerations

Welfare assessment tools are only valuable when linked to improvement plans. Integrating on-farm and abattoir data provides the most complete picture of pig welfare outcomes.

What You Can Do

Advocate for welfare assessment as a supply chain requirement
Support digital welfare monitoring technology adoption
Choose pork from farms with transparent welfare assessment reporting