The Gyermely valley has historical traditions of animal breeding.

When the former co-operative was established, cattle and pigs were the livestock species which led to the continued production of feed. The pricing system at the time provided a considerably higher income from selling livestock than from the direct sale of corn, wheat and barley.The increasing yield of crop production and the great manpower needs of cattle and pig breeding increased the interest in poultry farming, which was always blooming on rural farms in the past. Two or three times higher revenues could be achieved by poultry farming than by traditional animal breeding on the same stable area and with less manpower. Initially, the co-operative was engaged in fattening broiler chickens, and later they kept laying hens. The egg market was unpredictable in the late sixties. Sometimes prices rose sharply due to the shortage of eggs, whilst on other occasions producers could only earn half or two-thirds of the production costs due to the difficulties of storing the surplus. The co-operative management came up with the idea of pasta production while trying to find a solution for selling the eggs steadily and at a good price. Subsequent to the establishment of the pasta factory, the most important task of the hen division was to supply the plant with good quality fresh eggs. The number of hens grew in parallel with the development of the pasta factory. Currently there is sufficient space to rear 540,000 laying hens in three separate facilities, in a total of 8 different sized hen-houses. The spaces comply with the EU regulations mandatory from 2012 and are equipped with devices serving the comfort of hens (perching bar, laying nest, litter for pecking and scratching). The company invested billions of HUF in the compliance with animal welfare regulations through the construction of new, large-size stables. The systems of feeding, watering, ventilation, manuring and egg collection is fully automated at the stables; therefore, the manpower need is much lower than prior to the development.

The eggs are delivered on an egg-forwarding line from the hen-houses to the classifying and packaging machine. Subsequent to candling, grading by weight, marking according to specifications and packaging, the eggs are forwarded to retail units or to the pasta factory as raw material. The hen division produces 140 million eggs annually, of which 90 million are delivered to the pasta factory, while the rest are sold to industrial users and retail traders in packaging according to our customers’ demands.

The holding purchases day-old chicks and rears them to egg-laying hens. Rearing is done at a highly modern facility with a capacity of 200,000 chickens per term. This rearing capacity makes it possible for the holding to undertake paid rearing. Quality egg production is based on careful and professional chicken rearing.
The greatest cost of animal breeding is that of feed. The mixed feed needs of the holding are provided for by the new feed factory opened in 2017, run by Gyermelyi Tojás Kft., mainly through the use of self-produced raw materials. The combination of raw material acquisition, storage and technology quality assurance system of the feed factory guarantees that the feed types produced fully satisfy the livestock demands, and their favourable prices ensure production at a profit.