And our foodservice Focus 6 product lines grew share year over year in broad-line distribution.
Chicken was a bright spot, where we saw our volumes improved 3.6%.
As discussed at Investor Day, we are also in the process of building 12 new plants.
In the quarter, our cost of goods sold was up 18% relative to the same period last year.
As a result, our average sales price for the quarter increased 19.6% relative to the same period last year.
Last year, Tyson Foods donated more than 16 million pounds of protein, the equivalent of 64 million meals to fight hunger.
1 in our sector in their rankings of the world's most admired companies.
We delivered solid operating income performance, up 40% for the quarter.
For example, we provided our hourly team members with more than $50 million in bonuses during the first quarter.
We saw chicken volumes grow 3.6% in the quarter, driven by strong fundamental demand and improved live production.
In prepared foods, volumes were down 2.6% in the first quarter.
About half of the decline was related to pet treats divestiture.
In beef, volumes were down 6.2%, driven by labor shortages previously mentioned.
We expect these headwinds on volume to normalize over the course of fiscal 2022.
Overall, we expect to grow our total company volumes by 2% to 3% in FY '22, outpacing protein consumption growth.
Chicken remains a top priority and we continue to execute against our road map to achieve an operating income margin of 5% to 7% on a run-rate basis by mid-fiscal '22.
We were pleased with our volume growth in the quarter and expect further improvements as we grow our harvest capacity utilization from an average of 37 million head per week in FY '21 to 40 million head per week by year end.
The program aims to deliver $1 billion in recurring productivity savings by the end of fiscal '24 relative to a fiscal 2021 cost baseline and has three critical focus areas, which are operational and functional excellence, digital solutions, and automation.
As a result of projects like these, we're on track to deliver $300 million to $400 million of savings in fiscal 2022.
This starts by returning our operating margin to the 5% to 7% level by the middle of fiscal 2022.
On capital alone, we're expected to invest $2 billion in fiscal year '22 with a disproportionate share focused on new capacity and automation objectives.
During the quarter, we returned over $500 million in dividends and share repurchases.
Our sales were up approximately 24% in the first quarter, largely a function of our pricing initiatives to offset inflationary pressures.
Looking at our sales results by channel, retail drove almost $350 million of top-line improvements versus last year.
Improvements in sales through the foodservice channel drove an increase of $1 billion and our export sales were nearly $333 million stronger than the prior-year period as we leveraged our global scale to grow our business.
First-quarter operating income of $1.4 billion was up 40% relative to the same quarter last year due to increased earnings in beef, pork, and chicken.
Driven by the strength in operating income, first-quarter earnings per share grew 48% to $2.87.
Slide 10 bridges year-to-date operating income, which was $407 million higher than fiscal 2021.
Declines in beef and prepared foods were largely due to continued labor challenges in those segments.
Our pricing actions led to approximately $2.1 billion in sales and price/mix benefits during the quarter.
which offset the higher cost of goods sold of $1.6 billion.
We saw continued inflation across the business, in some instances, up 20% to 30%.
And finally, SG&A was $88 million unfavorable to the same period last year, which was largely a result of cycling a $55 million benefit recorded last year for the recovery of cattle.
Segment sales were more than $5 billion for the quarter, up 25% versus the same period last year.
Sales growth was driven by continued strong demand for beef products, which has supported higher average sales price.
We delivered segment operating income of $956 million, up 81% versus the prior comparable period.
Our operating margin of 19.1% was notably higher than the same quarter last year but was down on a sequential basis versus the last two quarters as cost increases led to a narrowing of the spread.
Segment sales were over $1.6 billion for the quarter, up 13% versus the same period last year.
Key sales drivers for the segment included higher average sales price due to strong demand and increased hog costs, partially offset by a challenging labor environment.
Average sales price increased 12.8% and volumes were slightly higher relative to the same period last year.
Segment operating income was $164 million for the quarter, up 41% versus the comparable period.
Overall, operating margins for the segment improved to 10.1% for the quarter.
Sales were $2.3 billion for the quarter, up 10% relative to the same period last year.
Operating margins for the segment were 8% or $186 million for the first quarter.
Sales were $3.9 billion for the quarter, up 37%.
Volumes improved 3.6% in the quarter due to strong consumer demand and increased life production.
Average sales price improved around 20% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.
Chicken delivered adjusted operating income of $117 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2022, representing an operating margin of 3%.
Operating income in the quarter was negatively impacted by $185 million of higher feed ingredient costs.
Continued strength in our earnings this quarter have further improved our leverage ratio to 1.1 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA.
We are maintaining our total company sales guidance of $49 billion to $51 billion, although we expect to perform at the upper end of the range.
In support of our sales growth, we still expect a 2% to 3% volume growth on a year-over-year basis as we work to optimize our existing footprint and run our plants full.
Looking at AOI margin target ranges for our segments, in chicken, our operational turnaround is working and we still expect to achieve a run rate profitability of 5% to 7% by the middle of the year.
We expect full-year margins that also fall between 5% to 7%.
Prepared foods is expected to deliver margins during fiscal '22 of between 7% and 9%.
In beef, we are maintaining our AOI margin at 9% to 11%, but we expect to perform at the upper end of the range.
In Pork, we expect similar performance during fiscal '22 to what we accomplished during fiscal '21, equating to a margin of between 5% and 7%.
In international/other, we expect margins of 2% to 3% as capacity expansions and strong global demand support volume growth and improved profitability.
Consistent with our expectation for a meaningful increase in capex spending to pursue a healthy pipeline of projects with strong return profiles, we anticipate capex spending of approximately $2 billion during fiscal 2022.

Summary:
About half of the decline was related to pet treats divestiture.
We expect these headwinds on volume to normalize over the course of fiscal 2022.
Overall, we expect to grow our total company volumes by 2% to 3% in FY '22, outpacing protein consumption growth.
The program aims to deliver $1 billion in recurring productivity savings by the end of fiscal '24 relative to a fiscal 2021 cost baseline and has three critical focus areas, which are operational and functional excellence, digital solutions, and automation.
On capital alone, we're expected to invest $2 billion in fiscal year '22 with a disproportionate share focused on new capacity and automation objectives.
Driven by the strength in operating income, first-quarter earnings per share grew 48% to $2.87.
Declines in beef and prepared foods were largely due to continued labor challenges in those segments.
Sales growth was driven by continued strong demand for beef products, which has supported higher average sales price.
Key sales drivers for the segment included higher average sales price due to strong demand and increased hog costs, partially offset by a challenging labor environment.
We are maintaining our total company sales guidance of $49 billion to $51 billion, although we expect to perform at the upper end of the range.
In support of our sales growth, we still expect a 2% to 3% volume growth on a year-over-year basis as we work to optimize our existing footprint and run our plants full.
In international/other, we expect margins of 2% to 3% as capacity expansions and strong global demand support volume growth and improved profitability.
Consistent with our expectation for a meaningful increase in capex spending to pursue a healthy pipeline of projects with strong return profiles, we anticipate capex spending of approximately $2 billion during fiscal 2022.