Influences of Genetic, Feed, and Technological Factors on the Productivity and Reproductive Capacity in Farm Animals

Abstract

Productive and reproductive performance in farm animals is shaped by the combined effects of genetic potential, nutritional conditions, and technological management, although the relative importance of these factors differs among species. The present study aimed to identify the main genetic, nutritional, and technological factors influencing the productive and reproductive performance of farm animals and to assess their relative contributions and interactions. A 12-month controlled comparative study included 480 clinically healthy animals, including 120 cattle, 160 pigs, and 200 laying hens of the selected breeds. Within each species and breed, eligible animals were grouped according to age, sex, physiological status, and body condition score. Animals with similar values for these variables were then matched and non-randomly allocated to control and experimental groups to minimize pre-intervention differences between the groups. In cattle, the assessed parameters included milk yield, milk fat and protein content, liveweight gain, pregnancy rate after first insemination, calf birth weight, and calf survival to weaning. In pigs, average daily gain, slaughter yield, intramuscular fat content, litter size, piglet birth weight, and pre-weaning survival were evaluated. In laying hens, egg production, egg weight, the proportion of eggs with shell or shape defects, hatchability, and chick survival were assessed. Measurements were obtained from July 2024 to June 2025 from production records, electronic weighing, infrared milk analysis, ultrasonography, Soxhlet extraction, and automated egg analysis. In cattle, genetic factors, particularly breed and breeding improvement, had the greatest influence in increasing milk yield by 5.8-9.3% and milk protein content by 0.08-0.12 percentage points. In pigs, nutritional factors made the greatest contribution, including optimization of the dietary protein-to-energy ratio, which increased average daily gain by 7.0%, litter size by 4.5%, and intramuscular fat content by 16.7%. In laying hens, combined nutritional and genetic factors increased egg production by 3.9-6.0% and reduced the proportion of non-standard eggs by 31.1%. Technological optimization of microclimate, stocking density, reproductive management, and stress reduction stabilized performance and increased piglet survival by 1.5-2.8%. The findings support species-specific integration of breeding, nutritional, and management strategies. © The Author(s) 2026. Open Access: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.