Freezing semen - Do you?

AndyPandy

AndyPandy

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Do you freeze semen at your stud? If so, what equipment do you use? Have you had good success? I am fascinated as to why more people don't freeze semen... I have my beliefs as to the reasons, but I will hold onto them until a few people have posted...

Jamie
 
surely it depends on the quality of semen you are getting from the stallion as to whether the stud decide its suitable for freezing or not? Some stallions semen dosent freeze at all well, and there can be a reduced conception rate from frozen too. Most studs will assess their stallions and do 'sample' freezings to check what the quality is like before they start 'selling' frozen.

The stud i got my mares frozen from where excellent - i asked about conception rates/quality of semen when frozen and they were able to give me exact details on the stallion i used.

But i guess you probably know all this already, so il shut up now!!
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Of course, not all stallion's semen will freeze. In this scenario, I am assuming that the stallion's or stallions' semen WILL freeze, and has good post-thaw motility.

Although this is a good point in a way - I think a lot of people don't even see freezing and frozen semen as a useful tool... Why?
 
Cost on both parts i should think.
I would love to send both of my stallions away to have semen frozen but i just dont have the funds to risk it if it dosnt work.
We have been qouted around 4k for each stallion with no assuraties that it will be any good.
I just dont have that sort of money floating around and if i did im sure i could find something else to spend it on like a nice broodmare.
 
I sent my 3yo stallion to Twemlows to be semen-tested, dummy-trained and collected for frozen semen, which they store and ship to breeders for me as needed.

It wasn't cheap, but I'm very glad I did it, especially as we are exporting his frozen semen to breeders in Europe who would otherwise have been unable to use him.

I was fortunate in that his semen freezes exceptionally well, which I know is not always the case.

The latest research shows that frozen semen if correctly handled is just as effective as chilled, so I think more people may choose this method in future.
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The reason I posted this thread was to get the "expense" answer.

Services which freeze semen in this country are expensive. Ridiculously so in many cases.

So why not freeze at home? Well, because the companies which do the freezing, and several manufacturers and retailers will tell you that you MUST HAVE A CONTROLLED RATE FREEZER to freeze semen, which will cost you £7,000-£20,000. Scary! They'll say "research shows that the rate of freezing must be digitally controlled to freeze semen successfully." OH REALLY? What research is that!? Little, if any research shows that digital freezing is any more successful than manual freezing techniques.

The freezing of semen is not really a difficult task, if instructions are laid down and followed every time; positive results are extremely repeatable, and the manual freezing equipment is very affordable. E.g. the whole "kit" for less than the cost of 1 week's livery and freezing at a commercial AI centre.

If you do semen collection, and chilled semen preparation and shipping at your stud/farm, then it's not a massive step on to freeze semen.

And you're right htobago; frozen semen can be just as successful in producing pregnancies as chilled. How useful would it be to competing stallions to spend 2 weeks having semen collected to then allow him to compete without covering for the rest of the season?
 
I sent both my Grade A stallions off to have there semen frozen as soon as possible after getting them, so I have a little stash from both. It cost over 2k each for just over 2 weeks!
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Unfortunately one of my ponies semen didn't freeze well so we couldn't store off of him!
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[ QUOTE ]
The reason I posted this thread was to get the "expense" answer.

Services which freeze semen in this country are expensive. Ridiculously so in many cases.

So why not freeze at home? Well, because the companies which do the freezing, and several manufacturers and retailers will tell you that you MUST HAVE A CONTROLLED RATE FREEZER to freeze semen, which will cost you £7,000-£20,000. Scary! They'll say "research shows that the rate of freezing must be digitally controlled to freeze semen successfully." OH REALLY? What research is that!? Little, if any research shows that digital freezing is any more successful than manual freezing techniques.

The freezing of semen is not really a difficult task, if instructions are laid down and followed every time; positive results are extremely repeatable, and the manual freezing equipment is very affordable. E.g. the whole "kit" for less than the cost of 1 week's livery and freezing at a commercial AI centre.

If you do semen collection, and chilled semen preparation and shipping at your stud/farm, then it's not a massive step on to freeze semen.

And you're right htobago; frozen semen can be just as successful in producing pregnancies as chilled. How useful would it be to competing stallions to spend 2 weeks having semen collected to then allow him to compete without covering for the rest of the season?

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't realize that freezing could be done comparatively cheaply 'at home', so this is interesting. But I still don't regret sending my boy to Twemlows - they were great and have a lot of experience and expertise - it's not just the freezing, but all the tests and evaluations, and the dummy-training, not to mention all the export red-tape and so on that they handle for me.

And their follow-up help and advice has been invaluable - e.g. when I bought a dummy-mare, Tullis flew down specially to help us get it positioned correctly and help with any 'teething problems' and so on. And he's always there and very helpful when I need advice on anything. So I do feel the expense was worthwhile.
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(I don't remember the exact cost, but I think it was not much over £2000, and he was there for about a month, cos there was an extra standard quarantine period before semen could be collected for export to Europe.)
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Slightly OT but still related to semen and sending stallions away... How much roughly does it cost to have your stallion trained to use a dummy mare? Considering doing this in a couple of years if our Knabstrupper boy passes his grading and just wondered what the outline costs were for them being taught to collect from.

Thanks!
 
interesting. Twem quoted me £1200 +/- a couple of hundred. A local stud who has just set up freezing facilities, has quoted me IRO £1k for everything (dummy training, livery, feed etc) inc freezing 20 doses, think 6 straws a dose. I'm thinking of getting my boy frozen "just in case". Then £80 - £100 per annum for storage.
 
£240.00 For dummy training, including livery, feed, and assessments of semen collection plus £90.00 for first test freeze with different extenders during training.
£60.00 per future collection, £25.00 for freezing per ejaculate.
£10-60 per annum for storage.

So, for training, semen assessments, test freezes, four collections and ejaculates frozen and stored for a year: £750.00
 
I had 60 doses frozen, and this was for Europe as well as UK, which involved extra blood tests and stuff as well as an extra 10 days quarantine, I think, so that might account for the extra cost.

They were only going to collect 50 doses, but my boy was apparently very generous with the stuff, and it froze exceptionally well, so I was lucky enough to get an extra 10 doses.
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Anyway, I was delighted with every aspect of Twemlows - really can't fault them. And they have web-cams in the stables so you can log on and see your stallion any time day or night...
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Not really sure what training a stallion needs to collect at a dummy? Haven't yet had a colt not jump on the dummy when presented with a mare to tease...

Freezing semen within the uk for uk distribution is not nearly as expensive as having your stallion frozen for worldwide distribution.

Martin Doyle travelled to do ours a few years ago, straight forwards and inexpensive. We have our own flask which gets topped up along with all the others at the AI centre and costs very little per year to store.

However for International distribution the freezing facilities need to be licensed and EU/Defra approved. So unless a small private stud is prepared to go all the way, comply with all the regulations, which evidently means quarantine facilities, it's a no go and man, all that paperwork... total nightmare for those who hate secretarial work..

What's more the after care assistance offered by the likes of Tremlows hall, health certificate application, shipper hire, exportation of semen can all be dealt with by them, which is a weight load off the stallion owners mind when they are dealing with mare owners requiring fresh chilled semen on a dialy basis.

Expensive, but money well spent and would always choose to go down that route. As many would say, it's money in the bank so to speak. Breakdown was around £3900 for quarantine livery six weeks, freezing aprox 140 doses and vets costs of £1600

Nothing simpler than sending a clients details to them knowing that they will receive their semen without a hitch no matter where they are in the world. They have totally taken the stress out of everything for us.
 
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