One hundred years ago, as the first WATT issue of Poultry Tribune was about to be published, nearly half of all Americans worked in farming and most farmers owned poultry of some kind. The crowing of roosters woke the nation every morning. Today, only 2 percent of Americans work on the farm and only a small fraction of those people raise poultry.
In the last 100 years, broiler chicken meat enjoyed an astounding success. Production rose from a negligible amount a century ago to 19 million metric tons today (42 billion pounds). How did this happen? Although the development of the industry took the combined efforts of thousands of people, this article takes note of just a few years.
Commercial poultry production by mistake
Cecile Long Steele (1900-1940) aka Wilma Steele, of Delaware is credited with starting, quite by accident, the broiler industry 93 years ago. Her first broiler flock was a mistaken delivery of 500 chicks for a laying flock instead of the 50 chicks she ordered. She decided to grow them all for meat. When the surviving 387 chickens reached two pounds live weight (many weeks later) she sold them all reportedly for a hefty profit. She knew immediately she was on to something.
Vertical integration takes hold in 1940s
That first phase of the broiler industry was one of mostly small commercial flocks. After Cecile, the next phase of the industry could be described as the development of vertical integration. Jesse Jewell (1902-1975) of Gainesville, Georgia, is credited with being the first to coordinate the broiler production stages. The independent businesses that once were involved in different stages of production were combined by “integrators.” The integrators combined (vertically integrated) production stages under one enterprise.
Jesse Jewell opened his own hatchery in 1940. That was soon followed by a processing plant and feed mill. He left the growing of the chickens to contract growers. For a time, he was the largest vertically integrated producer in the world.
While the structure of the industry was under radical revision, the location was changing as well. The Midwest and most of New England were abandoned as the industry became vertically integrated. The Southeast rose to broiler production prominence by capitalizing on the novel vertically integrated structure and unmatched advantages of low-cost land, labor and transportation services.
This phase of industry development was highly innovative on the production side of the business but not so much on the marketing side. Iced whole broilers were brought out onto the dock of the plant (remember the old Georgia Dock price?) and sold for whatever the market would offer.
While many of the stages of production were swallowed up by the vertically integrating industry, the remaining ancillary industries outside of the poultry firms were growing rapidly. These included primary breeding and pharmaceutical companies as well as host of other companies related to poultry equipment, agricultural lending, specialized vehicles and many others (even economists!).
The adoption of vertical integration and the application of scientific production and marketing techniques made chicken a bountiful and low-priced meat protein.
Marketing geniuses transformed poultry industry
The next phase of the industry started when chicken companies turned seriously to the question of marketing. One of the key components of marketing is developing a brand and an early genius at branding poultry was Frank Perdue (1920-2005).
Frank Perdue used a classic tool of marketing, product differentiation, to market his branded yellow tinged chicken to consumers. He was one of the first CEOs to appear on television. He is most famous for saying that it takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. In a memorable segment, he asked the question, “Why would you want to eat an unidentified frying object?”
The marketing phase increased the size of each surviving player (now just in the dozens) and those surviving players no longer sold just whole chicken. They added cut-up chicken, deboned chicken breast meat as well as processed and cooked items. The marketing horizon shifted as well to national and international.
Another iconic marketing genius of the marketing phase of the industry was Don Tyson (1930-2011). Don Tyson was in a hurry to create a company of an unimaginable size. By 2012, Tyson foods pushed beyond 2 billion chickens slaughtered in a single year. Tyson created a new definition of the economies of scale in production and marketing. He was the first to expand chicken marketing to a truly national scope and then the first to diversify into pork and beef becoming not a chicken company but a protein company.
Don Tyson expanded chicken marketing to a truly national scope and then diversified into pork and beef to form a protein company.
Now come the food companies!
The next phase of industry is now taking place. In this stage, chicken companies are likely to transform into food companies leaving behind their strictly chicken roots. In this phase, marketing will be truly global and, to satisfy economies of scale, i.e., most companies will be very large.
In their transformation to food companies, poultry businesses will be more global and, to satisfy economies of scale, very large.
The year 2014 is chosen as the year that the next phase of the broiler industry started. It was in that year that Tyson purchased Hillshire Brands. The purchase of Hillshire for $8 billion in 2014 moved the company in the direction of branded protein packaged food and away from its origins as a chicken company. In effect, Tyson is becoming a food company.
This article highlights four larger-than-life people who had an outsized impact on the development of the U.S. chicken industry. There are, of course, many others who deserve mention. The accompanying sidebar includes the four and eight more to make a perfect dozen.
12 trailblazers in the US poultry industry
Listed by name, year of birth/death, birth state, position, accomplishment
Justin Smith Morrill (1810-1898), Vermont – House of Representatives, Washington D.C.: Wrote the bill that established the U.S. land-grant system of agricultural colleges
Colonel Harlan Sanders (1890-1980), Indiana – Kentucky Fried Chicken, Shelbyville, Kentucky: Invented a global fried chicken franchise
Dr. Leo Norris (1891-1986), New York – Cornell University, Ithaca, New York: Legendary educator and a founder of poultry nutrition as a science
Cecile Steele, aka “Wilma Steele” (1900-1940), Delaware: Credited with starting the broiler industry 93 years ago
Jesse Jewel (1902-1975), Georgia – J.D. Jewel Company, Gainesville, Georgia: Invented vertical integration in the broiler industry
Jack DeWitt (1911-2012), Michigan – Big Dutchman, Holland, Michigan: Marketed the first automated poultry feeder produced on a commercial scale
Henry Saglio (1911- 2003), Connecticut – Arbor Acres Farms, Glastonbury, Connecticut: The father of the modern white feathered broiler
Frank Perdue (1920-2005), Maryland – Perdue Farms, Salisbury, Maryland: Developed and marketed the first real branded product
Dr. Bob Baker (1921-2006), New York – Cornell University, Ithaca, New York: Inventor of the chicken nugget and 40 other chicken products
Don Tyson (1930-2011), Arkansas – Tyson Foods, Springdale, Arkansas: Took the industry to a giant new level
Dr. Richard Witter (1936- ), Maine – Regional Poultry Research Laboratory, East Lansing, Michigan: Used turkey herpes virus as vaccine for Marek’s Disease in chickens; the first cancer vaccine
Jim Sumner (1947- ), Illinois – USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, Stone Mountain, Georgia: The master of global chicken diplomacy
