Pigs spend most of the time between weaning and slaughter in group housing. While there are some general ideas about increasing the swine welfare in group housing, the group housing husbandry practices are based on the understanding of the general biological needs of the animals as well as their healthcare needs, and behavioral and social habits.
Swine are very intelligent, highly social and highly hierarchical animals. Dominance plays a large part and there is a distinct stratification of the social order. Better resources such as first-choice feed options, and resting areas are saved for more dominant individuals, while the less dominant ones can be neglected in these areas. Competition for heat and premium resting areas are very common in group housing and persist even in large facilities offering plenty of area per animal; therefore these competitive tendencies can only be eliminated by individual housing – which is usually done on stalls barely large enough to allow the animal to turn. While the less-dominant individuals might contribute from this housing type, it is merely a solution based on the decision to counter the natural social order. Group housing can also pose problems with fighting (usually for dominance claims) as well as difficulties with disease outbreaks and cleaning.
Some techniques that alleviated some of the concerns over group housing came from Europe and can cleverly allow more uniform animal conditions. One of such techniques is automated feeding. Such feeding relies on a radio-frequency identification of each pig which is placed on the individual animal. The given animal then has the ability to come to the individual feeding area which is preceded by a shute, and the radio-frequency identification then allows the pig to access exact amounts of feed allotted to the individual before the next animal is allowed to come in. Therefore there is equality and no competition is present at the time of feeding save the order of animals accessing the feed. Such system can be expensive, however, and can pose time concerns with very large herds. Additionally, animals need to be trained properly to understand the process and the feeding mechanisms, which can become a stress factor on its own. On the other hand, system such as this one can allow for precise monitoring of wellbeing of the pig based on the quantities of feed and the willingness to come feed – and can be an early indicator of individual distress.
Another advantage of alternative housing system is a willingness to experiment with new group housing design. Outdoor access is one solution, while smaller rest areas separated by a single wall, but open to the rest of the group facility allow for smaller groups to rest in a more structured environment and physically separate the swine from the feeding and eliminating areas that the animals naturally develop. While such practices are again more expensive and can be difficult to implement in a very large facility due to great area requirements, the animal welfare benefits can allow for a premium niche market development, where the consumer simply chooses products of an alternative housing origin over the conventional one, for a premium markup.