The Great Southern Piggery raises its pigs outside. The 3,000 sows here graze, wallow and furrow in the sunshine - it's pig heaven. In Europe, legislation will soon stop farmers from making animals spend their whole lives inside. Pork production will be drastically changed. More than 10% of Australia's pigs are already raised on the open range. In Europe, that figure is now closer to 20%. Here, each sow produces 20 piglets a year - a better yield than the intensive indoor, battery-style pig farming. Once weaned, piglets spend 7 weeks leaping about on straw, developing weight and fitness. Their fate is nevertheless sealed: they all end up being sent off to market. Pigs living outside are fitter and can give birth unassisted. The days of massive indoor piggeries may be numbered, not just from an animal welfare point of view, but also from the sheer cost of traditional methods. Farms adopting these new procedures show there is an art to pig production. The animals are healthy and the profits are good.

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