At the Hy-Line International farm at Black Corners west of Dallas Center, the coops have flown but not the chickens.
The familiar lines of egg-laying buildings stretching eastward from U.S. Highway 169 along the south side of Iowa Highway 44, once the largest layer breeding stock hatchery in the world, have all been flattened and the site regraded.
Only the half-a-dozen broiler houses and support buildings are still standing at the eastern end of the property, and the domed manure store remains intact on the south side of the campus.
Hy-Line Poultry Farm was founded in 1936 by Henry A. Wallace, the hybrid-chicken wing complementing his hugely successful Pioneer Hi-Bred Corn Co. Hy-Line was similarly profitable in applying the principles of hybridization and later molecular genetics to commercial layer breeding. The company was renamed Hy-Line International and was spun off from Pioneer in 1978.
The four-corners facility is gone, but the Hy-Line International presence in Dallas County continues, with a 15-acre facility nearby at 23613 250th St., a 120-acre plant at 23259 180th St. near Minburn and a 150-acre site at 15184 Ranger Dr. near Woodward.
Today the company leads the world in applying DNA-based technology to chicken breeding and genetics, producing and selling both brown and white egg stock to more than 120 countries. The company leads the world in producing hybrid egg-laying chickens.
