Pigs that establish a consistent circadian feeding rhythm early in the fattening period convert feed to body mass more efficiently than pigs whose daily intake patterns remain erratic. Analysis of 2,297 Large White pigs using electronic feeding stations revealed moderate heritability for circadian consistency (0.24-0.35) and a favorable genetic correlation (0.18-0.27) between rhythmic feeding and feed efficiency. Animals that locked into a stable 24-hour intake cycle early in life maintained that rhythm throughout fattening, and the trait is heritable enough to select for.

The mechanism is not about eating more or less. It is about when. The same total caloric input, distributed across a consistent circadian pattern, produces better metabolic outcomes than the same calories distributed chaotically. The organism is not merely processing fuel; it is synchronizing digestion, hormone cycling, insulin sensitivity, and anabolic processes to a temporal scaffold. When the scaffold is stable, each subsystem can anticipate the next input and prepare accordingly. When feeding is arrhythmic, each meal arrives as a surprise, and the metabolic infrastructure wastes energy on readiness rather than processing.

This extends beyond livestock nutrition. Any system that receives inputs on a schedule can tune its internal processes to that schedule, and the tuning itself becomes a source of efficiency invisible in snapshot measurements. The advantage of rhythm is not in the content of the signal but in its predictability – the organism invests less in vigilance and more in preparation, and that reallocation compounds over time.

(arXiv:2603.18081)