Producer
Hy-Line International
Hy-Line International (Iowa City, Iowa; wholly owned subsidiary of EW Group GmbH, Germany; founded 1936 by Henry A. Wallace — the US Secretary of Agriculture under FDR and 33rd US Vice President — as a hybrid corn and poultry breeding venture; now the world's #1 layer genetics company by commercial chick volume) produces the Hy-Line Brown (dominant in US, Latin America, and India), Hy-Line W-36 (dominant US white egg breed), and Hy-Line W-80 (ultrawhite egg, specialty market). Hy-Line maintains great-grandparent (GGP) flocks at its primary US breeding facility in Iowa City, Iowa. Hy-Line's W-36 white leghorn breed is the standard commercial layer in US cage operations and historically has been the workhorse of the US egg industry. Hy-Line was acquired by EW Group in 2000. Hy-Line supplies grandparent stock to multiplier hatcheries in 100+ countries and has technical service teams on every continent. During the 2022-2024 HPAI outbreak, Hy-Line's Iowa breeding operations were a critical chokepoint — any HPAI breach of GGP flocks at Iowa City would have required sourcing replacement GGP stock from international backup facilities, potentially adding 12-18 months to US flock repopulation timelines.
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What they make
2 inputs Hy-Line International supplies
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3 facilities
Hy-Line International Headquarters & Primary Breeding Research Station →
USIowa, USA · genetics-research-and-breeding
West Des Moines, Iowa. Houses pedigree nucleus flocks for White Leghorn and brown egg strains. Loss of this facility to disease would eliminate the US's largest layer genetics source.
Hy-Line International — Latin America Grandparent Station (Uberlândia, Brazil) →
BRMinas Gerais
Hy-Line International's Latin American grandparent stock facility in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil — Brazil is the world's largest egg-producing country outside the US and China, with ~55 billion eggs/year. This facility supplies grandparent and parent stock for Latin American commercial layer operations using Hy-Line Brown and W-36 breeds. Brazil's separation from US HPAI outbreaks (Brazil has historically been HPAI-free in commercial poultry, though Newcastle disease is managed) makes it a geographically isolated backup for layer genetics replenishment.
Hy-Line International — Primary GGP & Research Facility (Iowa City, Iowa) →
USIowa
Hy-Line International's primary US great-grandparent (GGP) flock and research facility, located in Iowa City, Iowa — within the US Corn Belt and near major egg-producing states (Iowa is the #1 US egg-producing state). This facility maintains GGP flocks for Hy-Line Brown, W-36, and W-80 breeds. It is the critical US node for layer genetics recovery in any national flock depopulation event. During the 2022-2024 HPAI outbreak, Iowa was one of the hardest-hit states (>15 million birds culled in Iowa alone); Hy-Line's Iowa City GGP facility maintained strict biosecurity to avoid the catastrophic scenario of GGP flock infection. If HPAI reached this facility, Hy-Line would need to restore US GGP flocks from backup stock in international locations — adding 12-18 months to US flock repopulation vs. the standard 16-week pullet-to-lay cycle.
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Commercial Layer Genetics (W-36, W-80)
70%Parent Stock & Hatchery Services
20%Technical Services & R&D
10%
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Origin2023
Hy-Line International was founded in 1936 in Iowa City by Henry A. Wallace — the pioneering hybrid corn geneticist who also co-founded Pioneer Hi-Bred (now Corteva) and served simultaneously as FDR's Secretary of Agriculture (1933-1940) and then as 33rd US Vice President (1941-1945). Wallace had been replaced as Roosevelt's VP running mate by Harry S. Truman in 1944; when FDR died in April 1945, Truman became president. Had Wallace remained on the ticket, he — not Truman — would have decided whether to use the atomic bomb on Japan, potentially reshaping the entire post-WWII world order. The world's largest layer genetics company was founded by the man who came closest to redirecting 20th century history.
Hy-Line International ↗Incident2019
Hy-Line International was founded in 1936 by Henry A. Wallace — the 33rd Vice President of the United States (under FDR, 1941-1945), former US Secretary of Agriculture (1933-1940), and 1948 Progressive Party presidential candidate. Wallace was the son of Henry C. Wallace (Harding's Secretary of Agriculture), making the Wallace family the only family to produce two US Secretaries of Agriculture. Henry A. Wallace invented hybrid corn (building on work from Shull and East) and founded Hi-Bred Corn Company (later Pioneer Hi-Bred, now Corteva) — which became the world's largest seed company. Wallace applied hybrid vigor (heterosis) theory to poultry breeding at Hy-Line in 1936, creating the first commercial hybrid chicken lines. The company Wallace founded to test whether hybrid theory applied to chickens — which he sold to focus on politics — was later acquired by a German family business (EW Group) and became the world's dominant layer genetics company. Wallace's original company, Pioneer Hi-Bred (corn seed), was acquired by DuPont in 1999 for $7.7B and then became part of Corteva (DuPont agriculture spinoff). Henry Wallace's two agricultural genetics companies both ended up as dominant players in their respective seed/genetics markets — and both ended up acquired by large corporations, neither American-family-owned.
Hy-Line International ↗Did you know2024
Hy-Line International is the world's #1 layer genetics company (egg supply chain), but it is wholly owned by EW Group GmbH — the same German family-owned conglomerate that owns Aviagen Group (including Ross, Arbor Acres, and Hubbard broiler genetics) and Lohmann Animal Health (poultry vaccines and diagnostics). EW Group thus controls genetics for both egg-laying chickens AND meat chickens AND the health products that protect both flocks. A single German family business provides the genetic foundation for the majority of the world's chicken egg supply and a significant share of the world's chicken meat supply, plus the vaccines protecting those chickens from avian influenza and Marek's disease. The egg supply chain, the poultry meat supply chain, and the poultry health supply chain share a single, privately-held German family holding company at the apex.
EW Group GmbH ↗