I suppose this question has been posed before, but I am curious what the overhead would be to go from zero to finish, in producing certified frozen semen for export to Europe. I have had a few inquiries on one of our stallions, and have been pondering pricing as a package deal. I have not made up any frozen on the stallion yet, so I do not even know if he is a candidate for freezing at all. So that is the entire scenario. Thanks in advance for any knowledgeable and practical input!
You will find that prices vary from facility to facility but plan to budget for $10,000 to have a stallion frozen for export. That is the going rate in our area. As you mentioned already, you would first need to determine whether your stallion is a candidate for freezing or not. That would mean there would be additional expenses involved, as you would need to freeze him several times and then test the semen out on a few mares to see if you can get a pregnancy or two. If you do not do your own ultrasounding and palpating, plan to also budget approximately $1,000-$1,500 to have the stallion frozen a few times and an additional $1,500 per mare per cycle in order to try and get mares pregnant.
You will have set overhead (testing for required diseases which is a whole sequenced/timed process, possibly boarding if needed to be in quarantine to collect-(not sure about that now-did not use to have to be quarantine but things change-), first test collections to see how he freezes and what extenders etc he freezes best with to get the highest progressive motility and then you will have per collection freeze costs which will all depend on how many straws you want and how many you can get per freeze.
I am not sure how many stallion owners put it on themselves to actually see if frozen --(assuming it has good numbers for progressive motility)-- get a pregnancy. Many stallion owners do not own mares. It may be a positive indicator if the stallion’s sire froze well as that can be a good indicator for the son.
Not sure where you are located, but Select Breeders is a good source of information. Per collection use to be about $500 but I am sure it has gone up in price.
This is incorrect. Just because a sire is a “freezer” does not mean any of his sons will also be. As well, just because a stallion has good quality fresh shipped semen does not mean he will freeze well. And just because a stallion’s post-thaw motility is good does not mean he will ever produce a pregnancy. Unfortunately, motility does not equal fertility.
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Indeed, this was only a nonscientific observation made by PauLLoomis. A relative had an Abdullah son and Loomis was confident it would go well as Abdullah froze well and it did-- non-scientific observation on his part. that proved true. .
I realize great progressive motility does not equal pregnancies (and vice versa) but I do think one would be acting in good faith to sell…
I don’t think all stallion owners are in a position to be the one to try it first… Some folks board their stallions and do not own a farm, some folks are not all in breeding with mares etc.and for some having a stallion is plenty enough work and cost.
.All of the foregoing are just my observations-to be -take it with a bucket of salt.
To add a few thoughts here, though I’m located in Australia, I used to work in a facility where collections of genetic material were qualified for respective countries’ protocols. Those of the European Union were the most stringent and collection centres needed to be specifically approved for the EU. There were pre-isolation (quarantine) requirements as well as health testing over an extended period prior to the actual collection(s). In some cases, post collection quarantine periods were required and certain cultures performed on the semen; even a protocol for the extenders and antibiotics used in processing. Storage prior to export of the frozen semen was to be in specific EU only cryogenic containers within the facility. Sorry that I’m not answering your actual question on go to whoa costs, but also you might have to factor in the cost of the actual export process and whether that’s included in your price per dose, or whether the importer takes on that cost later on? Hope it all goes well!
