Agricultural History in Redmond: H&N International
- RHSociety
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Now grown in to a global operation, H&N International got its start not far from Redmond in 1945 when Arthur “Art” Heisdorf and his wife Mary Heisdorf, bought an old chicken farm in Houghton (now Kirkland) and established the Heisdorf Poultry Breeding Farm.
Operating under the name Heisdorf and Nelson Farms, the company opened a new headquarters in Redmond in 1966. The move brought about 40 employees to Redmond, including the genetics research program.
For Art, the purchase of the farm was a step in realizing his boyhood dream. Reflecting in 1981 on his life, Heisdorf recalled that he’d known since he was a freshman in high school that he wanted to “raise chickens.”
“That was very strange,” he said, “because ... we were living in the middle of Milwaukee, Wisconsin[,] close to the downtown area. . . . It seems I was driven to raise chickens because I certainly received no encouragement from my parents or relatives,” adding that he remembered the “fuss” his mother made when he decided to raise 25 chicks in his bedroom.
Early on, the Heisdorfs had realized the importance genetic research. Trained as a geneticist, Art kept meticulous records and rigorously applied the scientific method to his work.
He purchased chickens from leading breeders in America, Europe and Japan. “Crossline breeding”—crossbreeding different lines of white leghorns*—allowed him to develop a breed of his own.
However, Art recalled that he and his wife “got lucky” when they early on found two lines that “nicked” or combined very well together. The result was the Nick Chick, a bird that, in fair and unbiased studies around the country, outperformed other lines of leghorns.
*Leghorns are a breed of chicken, originally from central Italy. In 1828, the first leghorns were exported to North America from the Italian port city of Livorno. At the time, they were commonly known as "Italians", but by 1865 the breed was known as "Leghorn", from the anglicization of "Livorno".
H&N’s genetic research program allowed them to continue to track and analyze data on chickens—such as their parentage, mortality, egg production, and more—to spot trends and improve their breeding lines.
By 1954, the company was utilizing IBM punch cards to more efficiently track and analyze this data.
Interestingly, much of Heisdorf and Nelson’s early data processing was carried out by women
As the technology advanced, so did the company’s use of it. Former company general manager Alan Bargmeyer recalled that “genetic selection calculations [were] mainly done on computers[,] and the geneticists that were younger than Dr. McClary all had learned FORTRAN in college, and wrote programs to do the breeding values and selections.”
In many ways, the company’s investment in data processing brought applied computing
technology to Redmond decades before the high-tech boom of the 1980s and 1990s.
H&N became one of the largest breeders of egg-laying poultry in the country, with a strong international reputation and extensive distribution network, and they are still in operation today!
Lohmann & Co. in Cuxhaven, Germany had started out as the first distributor of H&N Nick Chick in 1958, and subsequently grew into a world market leader.
Lohmann later took the chance to acquire H&N, and in 2020 H&N International prominently re-emerged in the world as a global brand and genetic company.
Today the company is committed to preserving and sharing its unique and impressive history. The Redmond Historical Society has had the opportunity to connect with H&N International and its North American branch.
They have a wonderful digital exhibit chronicling the company’s history. Learn more at hn-int.com/museum/.
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