Donald Shaver search widely for diversified breeding stock. Local breeders, knowing his reputation were reluctant to sell to him for fear of competition. In 1946, there were 256 registered chicken breeders in Canada. Shaver Poultry became the 257th. By 1958, only Shaver remained, along with seven other major poultry breeders worldwide. The principle of hybrid vigour had been well established for corn, but the costs and time required to test chicken crosses were higher. Small breeders (as Shaver was at the time) could not afford permanent scientific staff, so Shaver obtained assistance from geneticists conducting research at universities and government institutions. Shaver
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