AndyPandy
Well-Known Member
While I'm in a ranty mood, and have a morning off...
Stallion owners, semen collectors etc. - when you collect and pack semen, what exactly do you do?
I've seen a number of people over the last couple of months who collect the semen, say "oh, erm... 20mls of semen... 20mls of extender... that sounds about right", and ship it off!!!! They don't check concentration, motility or anything else! And then they wonder why their stallion has a poor conception rate via AI!?
The problem with this is as follows: the important things to measure are VOLUME (how much semen was collected, in millilitres), the CONCENTRATION (how many million sperm cells are in each millilitre), and the PROGRESSIVE MOTILITY (the percentage of sperm cells moving -forward- in a straight(ish) line).
If you miss any of these measures, you cannot possibly predict the potential fertility of the semen you have collected. Going by volume alone is so ridiculous! There could be a single sperm cell in that semen that you've just collected, there could be a million, 5 billion, 20 billion - you have NO idea just by looking at it!
Extending 1:1, or 3:1 as a matter of course is no good either. Equine semen needs to be transported at a concentration of 25-50 million per millilitre. Extending blind is asking for trouble. If the semen you send is more concentrated than 25-50 million per ml, then it is likely that it will be fairly useless (dead) by the time it arrives. If it's less concentrated than 25-50 million per ml and you'll either be sending too high an insemination volume (should be 80mls maxiumum), or you're not sending a viable insemination dose (should be at least one billion progressively motile sperm), both of which will cause a reduction in pregnancy rates.
If the excuse is "I can't afford an electronic counter", then learn to use a haemocytometer - they're relatively simple once you get the hang of it, and there are some very easy counting systems available. They're probably more accurate than the electronic counters anyway!
So - stallion owners, collectors etc. PLEASE assess the semen correctly, use some maths to work out how to extend it. If you're not a mathemagician, and if you haven't already seen it, there is an excellent semen calculator at Jos Mottershead's Equine-Reproduction.com which is availabe here: http://www.equine-reproduction.com/SemenCalculator.php
Stallion owners, semen collectors etc. - when you collect and pack semen, what exactly do you do?
I've seen a number of people over the last couple of months who collect the semen, say "oh, erm... 20mls of semen... 20mls of extender... that sounds about right", and ship it off!!!! They don't check concentration, motility or anything else! And then they wonder why their stallion has a poor conception rate via AI!?
The problem with this is as follows: the important things to measure are VOLUME (how much semen was collected, in millilitres), the CONCENTRATION (how many million sperm cells are in each millilitre), and the PROGRESSIVE MOTILITY (the percentage of sperm cells moving -forward- in a straight(ish) line).
If you miss any of these measures, you cannot possibly predict the potential fertility of the semen you have collected. Going by volume alone is so ridiculous! There could be a single sperm cell in that semen that you've just collected, there could be a million, 5 billion, 20 billion - you have NO idea just by looking at it!
Extending 1:1, or 3:1 as a matter of course is no good either. Equine semen needs to be transported at a concentration of 25-50 million per millilitre. Extending blind is asking for trouble. If the semen you send is more concentrated than 25-50 million per ml, then it is likely that it will be fairly useless (dead) by the time it arrives. If it's less concentrated than 25-50 million per ml and you'll either be sending too high an insemination volume (should be 80mls maxiumum), or you're not sending a viable insemination dose (should be at least one billion progressively motile sperm), both of which will cause a reduction in pregnancy rates.
If the excuse is "I can't afford an electronic counter", then learn to use a haemocytometer - they're relatively simple once you get the hang of it, and there are some very easy counting systems available. They're probably more accurate than the electronic counters anyway!
So - stallion owners, collectors etc. PLEASE assess the semen correctly, use some maths to work out how to extend it. If you're not a mathemagician, and if you haven't already seen it, there is an excellent semen calculator at Jos Mottershead's Equine-Reproduction.com which is availabe here: http://www.equine-reproduction.com/SemenCalculator.php