Costs involved in breeding

baleofhay

baleofhay

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Please could anyone say what costs are involved apart from stud fee when you put a mare in foal. She is very nice anglo european warmblood . Only just sixteen hands so do i have to be careful of stallion size? She is seven and never had foal before is this a good age? Any other advice welcome
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Assuming this is AI:
Shipping the semen - £11-£40 via Royal Mail within UK
Ultrasound scans, PG, maybe hCG, oxytocin and maybe washout - vet packages for this vary from £150-500 depending on where you are and who the vet is. Non-package costs should not be higher than £500 in total.
This assumes the mare stays with you. If she goes away, then you'll have to consider livery costs.
A lot of places have good package costs, and others have very high prices... it varies!
Best idea is to ask your local stud vet or AI centre for prices!

Size wise, she should be fine with most things - it depends a bit on her conformation and frame size.

7 is a good age for breeding!

Only other advice is FIND A GOOD STUD VET/AI CENTRE - get recommendations, get them to come and see you/visit them and talk over your options. Going to a cheap place will cost you more in the long run when you have to make several attempts before acheiving a pregnancy!

Good luck!
 
Up to you really - it's worth a scan at 45-60 days, but then you're ok for the rest of the pregnancy (in general) - others may have different opinions on this, and there's nothing wrong with keeping an eye on her with scans or palpation.

She'll probably need extra feed, and pregnant mares should always be on an increasing plain of nutrition throughout pregnancy. Best thing you can do is ask, like you are here, and read lots about it. There's plenty on the internet, and loads of great books.
 
When I put my mare in foal I opted for AI and asked my vet to do a package.

Vet package was £500 - that included insemination, and as many scans throughout the pregnancy as was needed. It did not include any drugs.

Semen collection was £60 a time

My stud fee was around £650.

So already that is around £1200.

My mare was AI'd 4 times without success - and eventually went to stud for natural covering - which was successful. So on top of my £1200 I incured 3 months grass livery fee, stallion covering fee, and aditional veterinary costs.

In all it cost me around £2.5k.

Unfortunatly my mare did not keep hold of the pregnancy, so that was a lot of money down the pan
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I'm not saying this to put you off - just to make you aware that it can be very expensive, with no end result....
 
Usual rant: don't accept natural covering as the only option that "works" for a particular mare.

If your mare has problems with AI, then it is likely to be a uterine clearance issue, and hardly any vets in this country seem to be able to deal with that.

Be aware of the dangers (to both animals) in a natural covering situation.

Re: losing the foal - it would be advisable to get a blood progesterone assay done early in the pregnancy - if progesterone levels are too low, then this can be supplemented with dietary regumate to prevent loss of the foal in utero.
 
First time round it cost me approx £800, £400 for the stallion, £350 for the vets package

Vets Package included 3 attempts, and all scans and most drugs. My mare was AI'd with fresh semen on site, the stallion came to visit, she took first time so I had no livery charges and only had to visit 4 times in total

Second time round a lot more

Stallion £700, semen collection £150, semen delivery £60, Vets fees around £400 as she had to stay this time due to missing a cycle and it was easier that way

Both stallions were NFFR
 
This year the mare caught first time so the cost was £650 stud fee and vet fee £180 However the 2 previous years we used semen from Germany and we needed it at the weekend so shipping was 500 euros for 1 shipment. It worked the first year but not the 2nd year. So last year overall costs including stud fee, vets fees and shipping in excess of £2000 and no foal.
 
For one of my mares this season - £1k stud fee, and an additional £1050 in vets fees. That was two cycles of frozen semen. Another one cost me less than £500 all in. It's one of those piece of string questions!

Last year I managed to rack up £900 in vets fees for one mare, and we didnt get her in foal.
 
both times my mare took first time - first with fresh and second with chilled - the second time cost me a lot more as she was scanned in foal with twins and the stud fee was more money !!

Remember Frozen Seamen is more expensive in an AI package !!!!

have a look on here www.hobgoblins-stud.com there is lots of info on it !!

If you have a stallion on your yard would he complement your mare? also they will probably still AI !!
 
Or it can go to plan, and be cheap! Stud fee £150, to a Welsh Sec D in his first year of covering, covered naturally, had a jab to bring into season, think that was about £40. Grass livery for about a month at £2 per day, that's £60. Scanned to check if in foal (yes), think that was about £80, that's £330 in total.

Mare foaled down at home, no complications, foal has been fine ever since birth, except for a couple of plastic lateral extensions to even out growth in the front legs - that was about £150 at the most.

Now we have to keep, worm, trim etc the foal until it can be broken and ridden away, and become a 'useful' horse instead of a field ornament! We have our own land, I couldn't afford to breed if at livery.

So, to date the foal has cost £480 plus feed (luckily I am a feed merchant!), and as an added bonus, the mare was only bought as a companion, for £100! It was only on tracing her history and tracing her sires owned we discovered she had such good breeding lines.
 
I have been fairly lucky where cost is concerned for getting my mare in foal my stud bill came last month at £600 stud fee, £140 livery bill. Couple of scans with my vet at £40 ish per time total cost to date this foal £820.
However i sent her to a reputable Stud yard last year foal at foot who tried very hard to get her in foal using frozen semen at over £1500per time she was away months and AI'd two months consecutive with no pregnancy. Very dissapointing as Livery cost £400, vets £400 + cost of semen.
 
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Usual rant: don't accept natural covering as the only option that "works" for a particular mare.

If your mare has problems with AI, then it is likely to be a uterine clearance issue, and hardly any vets in this country seem to be able to deal with that.

Be aware of the dangers (to both animals) in a natural covering situation.

Re: losing the foal - it would be advisable to get a blood progesterone assay done early in the pregnancy - if progesterone levels are too low, then this can be supplemented with dietary regumate to prevent loss of the foal in utero.

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Thanks Andy - Amy was on regumate all through her pregnancy - she still aborted quite late. Unfortunately she was put down shortly after this due to a separate issue.
 
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Sorry to hear this. Regumate doesn't always work, but can help in most cases.

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She was a baggage - she simply didn't want babies. Hey ho, all experience....
 
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