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 of Shaver in 1964. When Shaver retired in 1985, Cargill bought the rest of the company. Shaver was acquired by ISA in 1988, and then became part of Merial. The egg layer business kept the Shaver name, and was sold as Natexis Industrie in 2003, and then to Hendrix Genetics in 2005. In 1962 Shaver ran unsuccessfully as a federal Liberal candidate. Since his retirement, Shaver has taken an interest in gene conservation. He maintained several pure lines of egg type poultry at his home farm near Cambridge. He later donated these flocks to the University of Guelph. Donald Shaver