'In-ovo' sexing, or determining the sex of an egg before it hatches, has long been seen as a potential solution to the problem of male chick culling at hatcheries. Methods of in-ovo sexing have historically been invasive and difficult to apply at scale, but today we're spotlighting a company with some revolutionary tech that could change that. 

Jennifer Volz is the Head of Global Business Development at Orbem, a Germany-based company using MRI technology and AI algorithms to make mass in-ovo sexing achievable for only a few cents per egg. Orbem's tech is already in use at several hatcheries in Europe, and Greg caught up with Jennifer at their Houston office, where they're quarterbacking the company's expansion into the US. 

Jennifer delves into the scale of the male chick culling issue, how Orbem's tech aims to solve it, and why their success could have implications that extend far beyond the egg industry. 

Steve DeWeerdt, and his parents before him, grew the DeWeerdt poultry farm from a small family business into a massive egg production and processing operation. But when Michigan passed a law mandating that all egg producers in the state go cage-free, Steve was faced with a choice: adapt or close up shop. 

Ultimately, Steve decided to make the transition, and today he takes us through that long process from start to finish, including the race against time to get their farm switched over, and the steep learning curve they faced when they ultimately got there. 

Unfortunately, not all eggs that get produced make it onto supermarket shelves. Producers try to sort out eggs that are broken or misshapen, hatcheries discard infertile eggs, and breaker operations need to deal with broken yolks or excess fluid left in shells. So what happens to that stream of waste egg products that still have nutritional value, but are deemed to be unfit for human consumption? 

Ingmar Middelbos is the Global R&D Director for Animal Nutrition at Symrise Pet Food. Symrise partners with producers across the US and abroad to collect discarded egg products that would otherwise end up in landfills, and turn it into nutritious food for pets. 

Ingmar joins us today to discuss the origins of the inedible egg business, why the industry creates such a consistent waste stream, and the potential future applications for inedible egg products. 

After nearly a year and a half of hearing his voice on Eggheads, we figured you might be curious about who Greg is and why in the world he decided to start a podcast about the egg industry. Well today, we hope to give you some insight, by flipping the script and putting Greg in the guest's seat. 

Stepping in as host for the day is Dr. Kay Russo. Kay's always been willing to lend us her scientific expertise when it comes to bird flu, and in this episode she uses that same academic rigour to tease out the details of Greg's journey from accounting to agricultural construction. 

Today, we hear from Greg about what initially pushed him to found Ag Installers, the mistakes that helped him learn along the way, and what inspires him to keep Eggheads going.

At only 25 years old, Cole Luthman is the Lead Service Technician at Cooper Farms, responsible for overseeing five out of their 8-million total birds. And as if that wasn't keeping him busy enough, Cole recently decided to start his own barn and become a contract grower himself. 

Cole's journey into the poultry world started at 13, when he began working with one of Cooper's contract growers. Since then, he's won an FFA award for proficiency in poultry production in the state of Ohio, obtained a degree in agriculture, and helped Cooper's growers navigate through a devastating HPAI outbreak. 

Today, Cole joins us to discuss his unique path into the poultry world, his day-to-day life as a Service Technician and contract grower, and what other young people can learn from his journey into the ag industry. 

Logan Webster has worn many hats in his life: he grew up on a broiler farm in South Arkansas, he worked in PR for Tyson Foods, he interned for a US Senator in Washington, and now, he's an entrepreneur working on an app that could prove to be an indispensable resource for growers everywhere. 

We've talked a lot about the broiler industry on this show, but for the first time we're featuring a voice from inside of it. Logan's going to walk us through his family's experience working as contract growers, the different challenges that people face within that industry, and how his new app 'Chicken Sheet' aims to make their lives a little bit easier. 

Besco Structures is one of the leading suppliers of pre-fabricated steel structures for agriculture. And since they started in the 80's, their director, Mark Doyle, has had the opportunity to observe poultry operations across the globe, from South America to Sub-Saharan Africa. 

His many travels have given Mark a repository of amazing stories that you wouldn't necessarily expect from your typical career in agriculture, including run-in's with dangerous reptiles, wearing bullet proof vests, and monkey bodyguards. Yes, seriously.  

Today on Eggheads, we're picking Mark's brain about the upsides and challenges of operating in the international market, how poultry operations have changed during his time in the industry, and Besco's vision for the future. 

On this show we've talked a lot about the debate around vaccinating birds against highly pathogenic avian influenza, and the opposing views on the issue within the egg and broiler industries. For clues on how to break that deadlock, we looked to a country that experienced very similar pushback when they first started talking about vaccinating their own birds, but still managed to make it work. 

Charles Martins Ferreira is the Deputy Agricultural Counselor at the French Embassy in Washington. As a trained veterinarian, Charles has worked on sanitary and phytosanitary issues all over the world. Now his job specifically involves monitoring the situation with bird flu in North America. 

Charles joins us to talk about the French experience with HPAI, the debate surrounding vaccination, and the incredible success they've had in curbing outbreaks. We also get into the importance of post-vaccination surveillance, and how bold leadership was instrumental in getting them across the finish line. 

A few months ago, Eggheads had the pleasure of running a booth at the PEAK Conference in Minneapolis. We met so many different folks working in the egg world, and felt so inspired by all of the incredible things we saw going on within the industry. So today, we wanted to sit down with one of the people who made it all possible. 

Lisa Henning is a board member for the Midwest Poultry Association, the body responsible for organizing the PEAK conference. She's also the Strategic Relationship Manager at Henning Companies, where she's worked for more than 22 years. 

Lisa joins us to discuss the incredible growth of the PEAK conference, her own atypical journey into the world of agriculture, and the importance of encouraging young people to pursue careers in the field.  

Glenn Hickman is the president of Hickman's Family Farms, one of the largest egg producers in the southwestern US. You'd think that their location in the middle of the Sonoran desert, well outside the range of migratory birds, would keep them safe from outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). But that was unfortunately not the case. 

After taking root in a nearby dairy farm, HPAI spilled over into Glenn's facility. 80 years of continuous operation came to a screeching halt, and the Hickmans were forced to sacrifice 95% of their flock — nearly 6 million birds. 

Glenn takes us inside his operation as he attempts to repopulate, and shares his perspective on what the industry needs to do to prevent this from happening over and over again.