Kids raised in extensive outdoor systems face different welfare challenges from intensive indoor systems, with exposure to weather, predation and parasites as key concerns.
Extensive outdoor kid rearing creates a welfare tradeoff: kids can express natural behaviours including climbing, exploration and complex social play, but face weather exposure, parasite burden and predation risks that intensive systems minimise. Good stockmanship — monitoring at kidding, providing shelter and dry bedding, ensuring adequate colostrum intake — is the critical welfare factor in extensive systems. Targeted selective treatment of parasitised individuals rather than blanket anthelmintic use maintains efficacy and reduces treatment stress.