Top 20 US egg producers in 2018

Egg Industry’s Top Egg Company Survey ranks the top 20 egg producers according to the size of their layer flock at the end of 2017.

(Terrence O'Keefe)
(Terrence O'Keefe)
The top 20 egg producers — according to data from Egg Industry’s Top Egg Company Survey, which is part of WATT Global Media’s database on the world’s leading broiler, turkey and egg producers — are ranked according to the size of their layer flock at the end of 2017. More information about the companies can be found by clicking on the company’s name or visiting the top poultry company’s database.
 
Collectively, the top 20 companies account for 229.17 million birds.


1. Cal-Maine Foods, 40.1 million hens

The largest producer and marketer of shell eggs in the United States, in fiscal 2017, sold approximately 1,031.1 million dozen shell eggs. Cal-Maine stated they thought that represented approximately 20 percent of domestic shell egg consumption. Cal-Maine had a total of approximately 40.1 million layers as of December 31, 2017.

Cal-Maine produces caged brown and white eggs, cage-free white and brown eggs, organic and free-range eggs, as well as specialty products. Most of their shell eggs are sold in the Southwestern, Southeastern, Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. Cal-Maine sells shell eggs to most American retailers.

On March 3, 2017, the company announced it closed the acquisition of substantially all the assets of Happy Hen, and its affiliates, related to their commercial production, processing, distribution and sale of shell eggs business. In the deal, Cal-Maine acquired commercial egg production and processing facilities with current capacity for about 350,000 layers and related distribution facilities located near Harwood and Wharton, Texas, according to a release.

Cal-Maine Foods ended its fourth quarter of its fiscal 2017, and its entire fiscal year, with a net loss, due to the prolonged effects of the U.S. avian influenza outbreak, among other factors. For the fiscal year, which ended on June 3, the company reported a net loss of $74.3 million, compared with a net income of $316 million the previous year.

On October 2, 2017, Cal-Maine Foods reported results for the first quarter of fiscal 2018, which ended September 2, 2017. Net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 were US$262.8 million, compared with US$239.8 million for the prior-year period. The company reported a net loss of US$16.0 million. During its earnings report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2018, Cal-Maine Foods CEO Dolph Baker said that because the supply of cage-free eggs is not consistent with the demand, the company has adjusted its cage-free egg production levels in line with the current customer demand. Baker added that Cal-Maine Foods was well-positioned to increase its cage-free egg production capacity as demand trends change. According to Baker, the cage-free egg market is an important area of focus for the company’s growth strategy, and it has invested in its operations and capacity to provide a strong supply of cage-free eggs.
 

2. Rose Acre Farms, 26.9 million hens

Rose Acre Farms is a family-owned egg operation that claims the spot of second largest U.S. egg producer. As of December 31, 2017, the company had 26.9 million layers in their flock. In addition to table eggs, Rose Acre Farms produces a variety of egg products ranging from liquid eggs and dried eggs to egg protein powder.
 
Rose Acre Farms’ new 27,000-square-foot, US$5 million corporate office in Seymour, Indiana, opened in June 2017. The new building resembles a chicken house and has offices for 80 employees on both the east and west sides of the building.

In August 2017, Chips Everhart, site selector for Rose Acre Farms, spoke at the Western Arizona Roundtable, hosted by the Arizona Association for Economic Development, about a new egg producing facility in La Paz County, south of the community of Bouse. Ground was broken on the facility near Bouse in June 2015. Plans for the farm included housing for about 3 million hens. The company also revealed plans for a pullet farm, a rail spur and a feed milling operation in La Paz County.

In October, Rose Acre Farms announced that it was at least temporarily discontinuing the addition of cage-free laying systems, or as CEO Marcus Rust put it, the company is “shutting [its] construction program down.” With all major grocery chains and a large percentage of restaurant and foodservice companies committing to only purchase cage-free eggs by a certain date, many U.S. egg producers, including Rose Acre Farms, started transitioning their farms to using cage-free laying systems. Rose Acre Farms, over the past four years, spent about US$250 million on cage-free operations and now has about 20 percent of its hens in cage-free housing, Bloomberg reported. 
 

3. Hillandale Farms, 16.73 million hens

Hillandale Farms is one of the U.S.’s leading suppliers of shell eggs. It has production facilities in the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast, and supplies retailers and distributors throughout the Eastern U.S. The company has 16.73 layers and creates products. In July 2016, the company announced plans to shift its production from conventional to cage-free housing systems. Chief Executive Gary Bethel said all future expansion at Hillandale’s Farms will be cage-free and all existing facilities will be replaced by cage-free barns as they age. The company built new, cage-free houses in Hicksville, Ohio, and Bozrah, Connecticut.

Hillandale Farms lost a barn and more than 100,000 hens in a fire that occurred July 1, 2017, at a Hillandale Facility in Tyrone Township, Pennsylvania.
 

4. Versova Holdings LLC, 16.4 million hens

Versova is a family-owned company, formed in April 2016, and is one of the largest egg producers in the U.S. Versova combines day-to-day operations of egg producers Centrum Valley Farms LLP, Trillium Farm Holdings LLC and Iowa Cage-free LLP. Centrum Valley, Trillium and Iowa Cage-free will continue to exist independently. As of December 31, 2017, the company’s layer flock included 16.4 million laying hens. They produce both caged and cage-free white and brown eggs, along with liquid egg products. Versova serves as a holding company with a new management team overseeing business functions of Centrum, Trillium and Iowa Cage-free. It handles marketing, customer relationships, information technology, operations, feed management, human resources and finance. This operation is owned by farm families with more than six generations of knowledge in egg production; those families are the Deans, the Hennings and the Boomsmas.
 

5. Daybreak Foods, 12.8 million hens

Daybreak Foods Inc. is privately held and is involved in shell egg and egg products production. Its layer flock includes 12.8 million hens. It produces conventional white eggs and liquid egg products. In November, the company announced at a town meeting that they were moving to a cage-free environment at their Creekwood site. The facility is going through the permitting process to upgrade its capacity. The company bought adjacent property and is looking to tear down the current facility and erect a larger plant.
 

6. Rembrandt Enterprises, 12.5 million hens

Rembrandt Enterprises, doing business as Rembrandt Foods, is privately held and focuses on producing egg products for the foodservice and ingredients industries. As of December 31, 2017, the company’s layer flock included 12.5 million hens. Rembrandt produces its egg products from white and brown conventionally produced eggs, cage-free eggs, free-range eggs and organic eggs. Its products include liquid egg, dried egg and hard-cooked, peeled eggs. In June 2017, the company announced the launch of a new product known as REMPRO, an egg white high protein product. It is intended to be ideal for sports and nutritional beverages. Rembrandt produces consumer and institutional or bulk packaged egg products.
 

7. Michael Foods, 12.18 million hens

Michael Foods Inc. is a leading food processor and distributor with business in egg products as well as refrigerated grocery and potato products. The company is the largest supplier of processed eggs in the world and is owned by Post Holdings Inc., which purchased it from GS Capital Partners for US$2.45 billion in 2014. In 2015, Post completed a US$90 million acquisition of Willamette Egg Farms, at the time the 30th largest egg producer in the U.S. As of December 31, 2017, its layer flock included 12.18 million birds. For fiscal year 2017, net sales were US$2,116.2 million, a decline of 3.1 percent, or $68.5 million, over the reported prior year. Michael Foods’ egg sales for the fourth quarter were “relatively flat,” although the volumes increased by about 3.5 percent.

In August 2016, the company, calling cage free the future of the egg industry, said it will convert a layer farm in Bloomfield, Nebraska, into a cage-free operation between spring 2017 and 2020. Unlike both Cal-Maine Foods and Rose Acre Farms, who have announced that they have pulled back on cage-free egg production because the demand has not been in line with the supply, Post Holdings CEO Robert V. Vitale said he feels “very comfortable” with the way its Michael Foods subsidiary is matching the production of cage-free egg products with the demand. “We are moving along with our customers and trying to be supportive of their overall initiatives in this area, so our capacity is very nicely matched against the demands,” Vitale said while speaking during a November 17 conference call.

In December 2016, Post announced it would pay a US$75 million settlement to settle an egg-related class action lawsuit filed in 2008. In November 2017, a federal judge accepted Michael Foods’ settlement. The lawsuit alleged that the leading egg producers in the United States conspired to use new welfare standards that included uniform hen spacing and housing standards to artificially reduce egg supply and raise egg prices. Michael Foods and Post Holdings agreed to settle, but stated that the settlement is not an admission of guilt. The payment will end Michael’s involvement in the case.
 

8. Center Fresh Group, 9.7 million hens

Center Fresh Group was founded by eight Iowa farm families. The company is comprised of five divisions involved in egg production: Center Fresh Egg Farm, Sioux County Egg Farm, Hawkeye Pride, Sioux County Pullets and Center Fresh Africa-Mozambique. The U.S. farms are located in Iowa and Ohio. As of December 31, 2017, the company’s layer flock included 9.7 million hens. Center Fresh produces conventionally raised and cage-free eggs as well as liquid egg products.
 

9. Midwest Poultry Services L.P., 9.5 million hens

Midwest Poultry Services L.P. is an Indiana-based shell egg producer for the retail market. It is a family-owned business that employs 500. As of December 31, 2017, the company’s layer flock included 9.5 million hens. The company produces conventional white eggs, cage-free eggs, free-range eggs, organic eggs and nutritionally enhanced eggs. 
 

10. Prairie Star Farms, 9.4 million hens

Prairie Star Farms markets the combined egg production of Rindler Poultry, Ross-Medford Farms, Hoosier Pride and J Star Farms. As of December 31, 2017, the company’s layer flock included 9.4 million laying hens.
 

11. Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch, 8.4 million hens

Herbruck's Poultry Ranch Inc. is Michigan's largest egg farm. As a fully integrated business, Herbruck's is involved in breeding, agriculture, feed and fertilizer production. The company also partners with 25 small farms to produce organic and cage-free eggs. Due to a Michigan state law passed in 2009, by 2019 all layers housed in the state must be able to fully extend their wings without touching the side of an enclosure or another hen and have the ability to turn around freely.
 
As of December 31, the company’s layer flock included 8.4 million hens. Herbruck’s produces white and brown conventionally raised eggs, cage-free eggs, organic eggs and nutritionally enhanced eggs. It also produces liquid egg products, consumer packed and institutional or bulk packaged egg products.
 
As of October 2017, Herbruck’s Poultry Ranch was expanding its egg farm in Ionia County, Michigan, creating 33 jobs and US$16.3 million in capital investment. Herbruck’s plans to construct three cage-free pullet-rearing facilities to raise 2.5 million young hens annually in Ionia County. Also in April 2016, it announced plans to expand an operation in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, by adding poultry barns to house cage-free and organic laying hens. In December 2016, a local newspaper in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, reported the company was seeking state permits to build a US$90 million cage-free operation including eight barns that could house as many as 2.4 million hens. In December 2017, the company announced it could begin construction on the farm in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, as soon as March 2018.
 

12. Weaver Brothers, 8 million hens

Weaver Brothers Inc. is a third-generation, family farm operation still owned and managed by the founders. The company offers cage-free and organic options and employs 350. As of December 31, 2017, the company’s layer flock included 8 million hens, up from 7.8 million last year. The 200,000-hen increase was in cage-free hens. Weaver Eggs provides a variety of egg and dairy products that are produced under a variety of recognized brands.
 

13. Hickman’s Egg Ranch, 7.35 million hens

Hickman’s Egg Ranch, also known as Hickman’s Family Farms, is the largest shell egg producer west of the Rockies. It is a family-owned business with hens in Arizona and Colorado, distribution operations in Iowa, Nevada and California and customers from Iowa to Hawaii. It has about 300 full time employees. As of December 31, 2017, the company’s layer flock included 7.35 million hens.
 
Egg Industry visited Hickman’s operations in Arizona in February 2017 and sat down with the Hickman family to discuss the 73-year-old family business’ past, present and future. They predicted that due to the egg market’s rapid shift to cage-free production, Hickman’s Egg Ranch will be 80 percent cage-free production within four years.
 
In September 2017, the company said that not only was it working to meet consumer demands by generating more cage-free egg products but is also working to branch outside the company's traditional role of farming into the packaging realm to work with a California recycler to develop 100 percent-recycled egg cartons.
 

14. Fremont Farms of Iowa, 7.3 million hens

Fremont Farms of Iowa is a producer and processor of liquid egg products. As of December 31, 2017, they had 7.3 million laying hens.
 

15. Sparboe Farms, 6.1 million hens

Started in 1954, Sparboe Farms began as a day-old chick company and has grown over the last 60 years to a major shell egg producer and marketer in the U.S. Its subsidiary Sparboe Foods provides egg products. The company also owns Agri-Tech, which produces premixes for lower feed cost. As of December 31, 2017, its layer flock included about 6.1 million hens. They offer a broad platform of white and specialty eggs in a variety of packaging options, along with vegetarian-fed brown eggs, cage-free brown eggs and organic eggs.
 

16. ISE America Inc., 6 million hens

ISE America Inc. is an integrated egg laying and production operation. As of December 31, 2017, they have nearly 6 million layers, as well as their own feed mill and shell egg processing plants. They also perform further egg processing, including fresh frozen eggs, liquid eggs and hard cooked eggs. The company is a subsidiary of ISE Inc., headquartered in Japan. ISE Inc. entered the chicken genetics and breeding industries in Japan in 1912.
 

17. Kreider Farms, 5.2 million hens

Kreider Farms supplies shell eggs to supermarkets and wholesalers in the northeastern U.S. and sells cage-free eggs under the Noah’s Pride brand. Kreider is the largest egg producer in Pennsylvania with facilities in Mount Joy, Manheim, Middletown and Mount Pleasant. As of December 31, 2017, the company’s layer flock included 5.2 million hens. Kreider produces both white and brown eggs, conventionally raised and cage-free eggs, organic eggs and nutritionally enhanced eggs.
 

18. Opal Foods LLC, 5.18 million hens

Opal Foods, an entity created by Visalia, California, private equity fund AGR Partners, was launched in May 2014 with the acquisition of Moark's Midwest operations. As of December 31, 2017, its layer flock included 5.18 million hens.
 
On April 4, 2017, Opal Foods suffered significant losses because of a storm that hit its egg operations in Neosho, Missouri. The company lost three poultry houses to straight-line winds. An estimated 600,000 chickens inside those houses were also lost, according to a Nextar Broadcasting report. It was estimated that it will cost about US$2.4 million to replace the lost structures and an additional US$4 million to replace the lost hens.
 
In September of 2017, the company received the Grow Neosho expansion award in honor of their new corporate headquarters. “Opal Foods' new corporate headquarters represents an investment of over US$1.4 million dollars,” Brock Peterson, president, Opal Foods, said to the Neosho Daily.  “This investment has created a central headquarters of over 17,000 square feet to house the management and operations teams, which oversee multiple egg farm operations in Missouri and Colorado.”
 
The company has 350 employees, most of which are in the Neosho area. The company specializes in all-natural, organic, cage-free and all-natural eggs with omega 3’s. Opal Foods is also providing Land O’ Lakes with all-natural brown eggs.
 

19. Gemperle Farms, 4.9 million hens

Gemperle Farms produces all varieties of eggs including organic, cage-free, omega 3, cage-free fertile and brown and white enriched colony barn eggs. All their eggs are produced without hormones and antibiotics. As of December 31, 2017, the company’s layer flock included 4.9 million hens. The Stanislaus County, California farm announced that the firm’s conversion to 100 percent cage-free egg production will be accelerated and completed by 2023. The company previously had committed to completing the conversion by 2024 in an announcement last year.
 

20. Sunrise Farms, 4.5 million hens

Sunrise Farms Inc. is an Iowa egg producer owned by Sonstegard Foods. The parent company produces and markets shell eggs as well as liquid, frozen and powdered egg products. Sonstegard Food Group is third-generation family owned and has operations in six states. As of Dec. 31, 2017, its layer flock included 4.5 million hens.
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