Success in developing and commercializing hybrid seed corn in the 1930s and early 1940s led DeKalb Agricultural Association in 1944 to explore applying hybridization principles to poultry breeding. Association President Tom Roberts Sr. and Ray C. Nelson, vice president of the newly formed poultry division, sought to develop superior egg layers for the nation's farmers and egg producer industry. Dr. E. E. Schnetzler of Purdue University was hired in 1945 as DeKalb's Director of Poultry Research, and a research farm was established at this site. By the mid 1950s, research concentrated on improving efficient white egg layers, and to meet growing demand for hybrid chicks, DeKalb formed an associate hatchery organization. Using parent stocks purchased from DeKalb, the hatcheries produced chicks sold to egg producers in the U.S. and Canada. DeKalb entered the international market in the late 1950s and early 1960s, providing parent stock to distributors in Europe, Argentina, and Japan. By purchasing the J.J. Warren Company in 1971, DeKalb gained access to an excellent brown egg layer that was color sexable. By the 1980s, DeKalb white or brown layers were found in over 25 countries, and the poultry operation was named DeKalb Poultry Research, Inc. In 1995, DPRI was sold to the U.S. affiliate of Toshuku Ltd., its Japanese distributor, then purchased by Hendrix Poultry Breeders B.V. of the Netherlands in 2000 and made part of Hendrix Genetics. DeKalb layers continue to succeed in major markets globally.