The top 25 U.S. 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 flocks at the end of 2022.
Collectively, the top 25 U.S. egg companies in 2023 account for 263.48 million birds, which is a decrease of 8.19 million birds from last year's survey.
1 Cal-Maine Foods, 43.97 million
Cal-Maine Foods is the largest producer and marketer of shell eggs in the United States. The company sells most of its shell eggs in the southwestern, southeastern, Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. Its operations consist of hatching chicks; growing and maintaining flocks of pullets, layers and breeders; manufacturing feed; and producing, processing, packaging, and distributing shell eggs.
Cal-Maine Foods produces brown and white caged and cage-free eggs, as well as free range, organic and nutritionally enhanced eggs. It also produces liquid and bulk egg products. As of December 31, 2022, the company's layer flock included 43.97 million.
In September 2022, Cal-Maine Foods named Sherman L. Miller as president and CEO. In its Q1 fiscal 2023 financial review the same month, Cal-Maine Foods Inc. reported record quarterly net sales of US$658.3 million, a 103% increase compared with the same quarter last year. The increase in the producer's sales was attributed to record average conventional egg selling prices and a record specialty egg sales volume.
In March 2022, the company announced that US$82 million would be used for capital projects to expand its U.S. cage-free production capacity in Delta, Utah, and Guthrie, Kentucky. Utah's expansion included four new cage-free layer houses and two pullet house conversions while Kentucky's expansion included nine cage-free layer house conversions and two pullet house conversions. The two expansions increased the egg producer's flock by 1,763,000.
2 Rose Acre Farms, 25.07 million
Rose Acre Farms is based in Indiana and is the second largest egg company in the U.S., ranked by number of layers. It produces conventional, cage-free, liquid and dried eggs, as well as egg protein powder.
In June 2021, Cal-Maine Foods purchases the remaining 50% membership interest in Red River Valley Egg Farm from Rose Acre Farms for US$48.5 million.
In October 2020, Opal Foods announced that Rose Acre Farms and Weaver Eggs purchased AGR Partners' interest in Opal Foods.
3 Hillandale Farms, 17.75 million
Hillandale Farms has production facilities in the Northeast, Midwest and Southeast U.S. It is the third largest egg company in the U.S., ranked by number of layers. Along with eggs under the Eggland's Best franchisee, the company also offers butter, cheese, meats and breads.
In August 2022, Hillandale named Kevin Jackson its new CEO. Previously, Jackson was president of the snacking and beverages division and chief commercial officer at food and beverage company TreeHouse Foods.
In September 2022, a former Hillandale Farms accountant pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and tax fraud. The employee embezzled almost US$7 million over the course of 14 years.
4 Daybreak Foods, 17.00 million
Daybreak Foods Inc. is based in Wisconsin and produces conventional, cage-free and organic eggs, as well as liquid egg products. In 2021, it expanded its cage-free egg production capabilities by opening its second cage-free facility in Eagle Grove, Iowa.
As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 17 million.
5 Versova Holdings L.L.P, 16.95 million
Versova, formed in 2016, is the fifth largest egg producer in the United States. It is comprised of Centrum Valley Farms in Iowa, Trillium Farms in Ohio and Iowa Cage Free. It produces caged and cage-free white and brown eggs, as well as with liquid egg products. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock included 16.95 million hens.
Iowa Cage-Free acquired the assets of Rembrandt Foods' Thompson, Iowa, cage-free farm, which was renamed Ovation Farms, in August 2021. Ovation's day-to-day feed mill, production and processing operations for the 240-acre Thompson farm are now part of the Versova family of companies.
6 MPS Egg Farm, 12.10 million
MPS Egg Farms is based in Indiana and a family-owned business that produces conventional, cage-free and nutritionally enhanced eggs.
As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 12.1 million hens.
In December 2021, MPS opened a facility that produces carbon-neutral, cage-free eggs for The Kroger Co. and the Simple Truth brand.
7 Center Fresh Group, 12.00 million
Center Fresh Group, founded more than 20 years ago by eight Iowa farm families, is comprised of Center Fresh Egg Farm, Sioux County Egg Farm and Hawkeye Pride. Center Fresh produces conventionally raised and cage-free eggs, as well as liquid egg products. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 12 million hens.
8 Prairie Star Farm, 10.40 million
Prairie Star Farms markets the combined egg production of Rindler Poultry, Ross-Medford Farms, Hoosier Pride and J Star Farms. It produces conventional and cage-free eggs.
As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 10.4 million hens.
9 Herbruck's Poultry Ranch, 9.90 million
Herbruck's Poultry Ranch Inc. is based in Michigan and is the state's largest egg producer. It is involved in breeding, agriculture, feed and fertilizer production. It produces white and brown conventional, cage-free, free-range and organic eggs.
In March 2022, it announced in its second sustainability report that it is on track to meet its 100% cage free goal by 2024.
In August 2022, Herbruck's announced that it completed construction on its US$100 million Blue Springs Egg Farm located in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. The cage-free facility sits on 335 acres and includes eight poultry barns that will house more than 2 million layer hens, an egg processing plant and a fertilizer pelletizing/ storage building.
10 Michael Food, 9.80 million
Michael Foods Inc. is based in Minnesota and is the tenth largest egg company in the U.S. The company is the largest supplier of processed eggs in the world.
Michael Foods produces caged and cage-free eggs, as well as liquid egg, dried egg, hard cooked, consumer packed and bulk products. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 9.8 million hens. In April 2022, avian influenza hit one of the producer's farms, causing a 2 million bird loss.
In December 2021, Northwest Farms and Proterra Investment Partners acquired the operations and assets of Willamette Egg Farms in the Pacific Northwest from Michael Foods. In the same month, Post Holdings announced its Michael Foods subsidiary will manage a plant producing mostly protein drink products in central Ohio. The facility plans to open in 2023.
11 Gemperle Family Farm, 8.95 million
Gemperle Farms is based in Northern California and produces organic, cage-free and nutritionally enhanced eggs.
In May 2022, it announced plans to remodel its egg barns to improve its sustainability and continue to reduce its energy usage. Additionally, the producer stated it will continue to maintain its donations of up to 500,000 eggs annually, increase its recycled material usage, reduce its downtime and food waste from equipment breakdowns by 75%, improve its maintenance program and prepare for a new free-range and pasture-raised egg farm.
12 Weaver Brother, 8.15 million
Established in 1929, Weaver Brothers Inc. is a fourth-generation family farm owned farm based in Ohio. The company produces organic, free-range, cage-free, hard-cooked and liquid egg whites. It produces under multiple brands, including Eggland's Best. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 8.15 million.
13 Opal Food, 7.52 million
Opal Foods is based in Missouri, Colorado and Iowa and produces cage-free, organic and nutritionally enhanced eggs. Opal Foods also provides Land O'Lakes with brown eggs. In October 2020, Opal Foods announced that Rose Acre Farms and Weaver Eggs purchased AGR Partners' entire interest in Opal Foods. Opal Foods remained an independent company with its own management team.
14 Mid-States Specialty Egg, 6.47 million
Founded in 2008, Mid-States Specialty Eggs is based in Missouri, with farms and grading operations in Missouri and Arkansas. it produces free-range, cage-free, pasture-raised and organic eggs. According to the company's website, eggs graded by Mid-States Specialty Eggs are sold by Eggs R' Us Inc.
15 Sauder's Egg, 6.42 million
Sauder's Eggs is a family-owned egg producer with facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Ohio and produces caged, cage-free, free-range, organic and nutritionally enhanced eggs, as well as hard cooked egg products.
As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 6.42 million hens.
16 Cooper Farm, 6.18 million
Cooper Farms is a family-owned, vertically integrated turkey company that is also involved in egg and pork production. All its operations are based in Ohio. It produces conventional and cage-free eggs, as well as liquid egg and bulk products. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock included 6.179 million hens. The Cooper Farms Egg Division opened a new egg facility called Golden Heritage Cage-Free Egg Farm located in Western Ohio in January 2022. The facility is operated as a partnership between two family farms that are splitting management responsibilities. Cooper Farms completed the acquisition of liquid egg processor CW Egg on May 3, 2021. CW Egg is now known as Cooper Farms Liquid Egg Products. Previously, CW Egg was operated as a partnership between the Cooper and Weaver families. In 2014, the two families purchased the Perham Egg facility in Fort Recovery, Ohio, to help Cooper Farms grow its egg division.
17 Kreider Farm, 6.10 million
Kreider Farms, based in Pennsylvania, produces conventional, cage-free, free-range, organic and nutritionally enhanced eggs, as well as milk and ice cream. Kreider Farms supplies shell eggs to the northeastern United States and sells cage-free eggs under the Noah's Pride and Kreider brand. Kreider is the largest egg producer in Pennsylvania with facilities in Mount Joy, Manheim, Middletown and Mount Pleasant.
As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 6.1 million hens.
18 Hickman's Egg Ranch, 6.00 million
Hickman’s Egg Ranch, also known as Hickman’s Family Farms, is a family-owned business based in Arizona and Colorado. Hickman’s is Arizona’s largest egg producer and has partnerships with Central Valley Eggs and Colorado Eggs. It produces cage-free, grass-fed and organic eggs, as well as liquid egg products, hard boiled eggs and bulk products. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 5.995 million hens. The company recycles more than 1 million water bottles weekly for its clear polyethylene terephthalate packaging. The cartons are made at the Hickman’s Family Farms facility in Avondale, Arizona. The plastic comes from 100% post-consumer plastic sourced from Global Plastics out of Perris, California.
19 Fremont Farms of Iowa, 5.50 million
Fremont Farms of Iowa is a producer and processor of liquid egg products. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 5.5 million hens.
19 Hidden Villa Ranch, 5.50 million
Hidden Villa Ranch is a family-owned egg producer based in Fullerton, California, that produces brown, cage-free, free-range, organic and nutritionally enhanced eggs. It also produces liquid and dry egg products, hard cooked egg, consumer packed and bulk products. The company distributes several national brands. The brands it distributes include California Sunshine, California Ranch Fresh, Horizon Organic and NestFresh. As of December 31, 2022, the company had 5.5 million hens housed.
20 Sunrise Farms Inc., 5.00 million
Started in 2003, Sunrise Farms Inc. is located in Harris, Iowa. Parent company Sonstegard Food Group is a third-generation, family-owned company with operations in six states. Sunrise Farms produces conventional eggs.
21 Wabash Valley Produce, 4.72 million
Wabash Valley Produce Inc. is based in Indiana and produces conventional and cage-free eggs, as well as liquid, dry and bulk egg products.
It has locations in Indiana, Illinois and Ohio. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 4.72 million.
22 ISE America, 4.56 million
ISE America Inc. is an egg producer based in Maryland. It produces conventional and cage-free eggs, as well as bulk and liquid egg products. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 4.56 million. The company is a subsidiary of ISE Inc., headquartered in Japan.
23 Minnich Poultry, 3.87 million
Minnich Poultry, founded in 1977, is an Indiana-based, family-owned shell egg producer. It produces conventional and cage-free eggs.
As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 3.87 million hens.
24 Forsman Farms, 3.60 million
Forsman Farms is based in Cokato, Minnesota, and produces conventional and cage-free eggs, as well as liquid egg products. As of December 31, 2022, its layer flock includes 3.6 million. On January 21, 2022, Forsman Farms announced its plans for a multimillion-dollar expansion in the Renville, Minnesota, industrial park. The new cage-free facility will house 1.3 million layers and create approximately 40 jobs for the area.
24 Sparboe Farms, 3.60 million
Sparboe Farms is based in Minnesota and was founded in 1954. Additionally, it owns Agri-Tech, which produces feed premixes. The company produces white and specialty eggs, vegetarian-fed brown eggs, cage-free brown eggs and organic eggs.
25 Ritewood/Oakdell Egg Farms, 3.26 million
Ritewood/Oakdell Egg Farms is a family-owned business with farms in Idaho, Washington and Utah. The company produces store-brand eggs including Smith's, Macey's, Albertson's, WinCo, Dan's, Fred Meyer, Harmons and Costco. Oakdell produces organic, cage-free and conventional eggs on its farm in Cache Valley, Utah. Eggs are sold in 11 states: Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nevada, Colorado, California, Alaska, and Hawaii.
