Sulmtaler Sulmtaler The Sulmtaler is an Austrian breed of domestic chicken. It originates in the Sulmtal, the valley of the Sulm river, in southern Styria, in the south-east of Austria, and takes its name from that valley. Like the Altsteirer, the Sulmtaler derives from the country chickens raised in Styria, particularly in the Kainachtal, the Lassnitztal, the Sulmtal and the Saggautal. In the second half of the nineteenth century these were subjected to massive cross-breeding with imported Cochin, Dorking and Houdan stock to create heavy meat birds for fattening. In about 1900 some breeders brought together the small remaining stock of
Donald Shaver the advice of C.D. Howe, Shaver expanded outside Canada in the late 1950s. Chile was the first international market, followed by the USA, the UK, France and Germany. By 1957, Shaver had a Romanian operation, and in 1970 one in Ghana. At his retirement in 1985, his company was operating in 94 countries. In 1988, Shaver, by their own calculation had 33% of the world market for white egg laying hens and 25% for all egg layers. Shaver launched a broiler product in 1958. In the early 1970s, the market share in the US was around 8-10%. Cargill purchased part