From a few chickens to world’s largest breeder, chair of Hibernia
Donald McQueen Shaver of Cambridge Born: Aug. 12, 1920, in Cambridge Died: July 28, 2018, of age related illness
CAMBRIDGE — Donald McQueen Shaver, the kid who raised a few chickens in the backyard of his parent’s Galt home couldn’t imagine he would become an industry leader in poultry, travelling the world establishing breeding farms.
His son Donald Jr. said “he was just a little guy in Cambridge who went out and became a world-class breeder.”
Intelligence, determination and a strong work ethic was responsible for Donald’s success. By the 1980s, Shaver Poultry Breeding Farms Ltd. was an empire; the world’s largest breeder of laying hens, with franchises in 94 countries.
Donald, born in Cambridge in 1920 one of three kids, began his business in 1932 when he was only 12 and a great aunt gave him a couple of chickens.
He then purchased a rooster chick, getting a hefty five-cent discount because the bird had crooked toes.
His passion for chickens started with these three birds and was so powerful the boy would bicycle from Cambridge to the Ontario College of Agriculture in Guelph to attend poultry conferences.
At 15, he entered a few of his pullets (hens less than one year old) in a national competition and won for best layers of the year.
Donald had to disappoint the organizers by explaining that he couldn’t possibly come to Nova Scotia to receive his award because he was still in high school.
It was a remarkable achievement, first because he was so young and second, poultry genetics was in its infancy.
There were no genetic specialists or research scientists he could call on for help so Donald became the expert.
One of his first aha moments was when he discovered that if he turned lights on in the coop before dawn, the hens would lay eggs he could then collect and carefully document before school.
According to Donald Jr., his dad didn’t trust his mother to effectively take on such an important task.
His methods were so effective, that while still a student, Donald was selling a couple thousand eggs weekly from the company he founded, Grand Valley Breeders, set on two acres outside of Cambridge.
He graduated from Galt Collegiate in 1937, marking the end of his formal education, though Donald would eventually enjoy the title of “doctor” after being conferred three honorary Doctor of Science Degrees: from McGill University in 1983, University of Guelph in 1995 and finally the University of Alberta in 2003.
Long-time friend Owen Lackenbauer, said “Even into his 90s, he was still active. He loved to go to out of the way restaurants like the Danish Café in Crief.”
On these long journeys, Donald would carry on separate conversations with everyone in the car while at the same time directing the driver down the windy back roads he preferred.
Owen wasn’t really surprised at how his friend could command a group of people while multitasking, given his impressive war record.
Donald joined the Canadian Armoured Corps in 1940 and served as a tank squadron commander, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
He saw action in North Africa, Italy and Western Europe and he was in Holland during the liberation.
In fact a young Dutch national had helped his squadron find a route through their town where bridges had not been bombed out. Donald never forgot that young man and eventually gave him a management job.
“To his employees, he was a disciplinarian but they found him honourable and fair,” said Owen.
After the war, Donald became Honorary Colonel of the Royal Highland Fusiliers of Canada, a title inherited by Owen following his friend’s retirement.
In 2015, seven decades after the war, Donald walked onto the stage at the University of Waterloo, where he was greeted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima during the royal couple’s visit honouring the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands.
Donald had been invited to the event representing Canadian troops and got a bit of a surprise when the royals told him that Queen Wilhelmina had forgiven him for destroying her favourite tree during the liberation.
Poor Donald didn’t have much choice, he had been using a flame thrower to flush out German machine guns and he had apologized to the queen at the time. Some mistakes just keep coming back to haunt you.
Donald received many accolades over his lifetime including being named a member of the Order of Canada in 1978 then promoted in 1990 to Officer of the Order of Canada.
He was one of the first to be recognized in the International Poultry Hall of Fame, in Japan, in 1988.
He is in the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame and was named honorary life member of the Poultry Science Association. Both the Ontario and Canadian governments have recognized his immense contributions to agriculture here and abroad.
At the end of the war, Donald was put in charge of co-ordinating the passage of war brides to Canada, one which happened to be his Scottish wife, Rena.
The couple had four children: Jill, Donald, Catherine and Jonathan and divorced in 1969. Donald then married, Rena Graham, who died in the 1980s.
In Canada with the war years behind him, came the real work of developing high-yield egg producing chickens but given his flock had been destroyed in a barn fire when they were on loan to New York State College, Donald had to start all over again, sourcing North America for birds.
“He was very serious,” said Donald Jr. “He was very focused and had a real sense of responsibility.
“He didn’t do anything flippantly, he always had a Plan B.” From the beginning, Donald realized breeding a good laying hen meant having diverse stock. He sought the best qualities in different breeds but largely had to rely on his instincts, with the help of a few animal husbandry experts from various universities.
Donald’s major breakthrough came in 1954 with a white leghorn cross, Shaver Starcross 288, named for the volume of eggs the hens laid in a year, nearly 50 more than average.
This was a bird that could out produce any laying hen at the time but the market in the country was small. Having a great product isn’t useful unless you can find customers so Donald set up distributorships across Canada that soon extended around the world.
Donald eventually used the same breeding principles in raising beef, creating Beefblend, a successful company Donald Jr. ran before retiring.
Aside from business practices, Donald had a strong sense of public service. In the 1960s he made an unsuccessful run for the federal Liberals.
After he sold the poultry business and retired at 65, Donald began his next career serving on multiple corporate boards including chair of Hibernia oil company until he was 90.
At 96, Donald was the keynote speaker at an international avian symposium in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
He died July 28, a couple of weeks before his 98th birthday, leaving behind an unprecedented legacy.