How to price/sell frozen semen?

[Ozalynda]

My stallion is being collected (good fresh AND post thaw motility). That might have been the easy part.
Please help me brainstorm about selling as a breeding (stud fee) vs. selling by the dose. After much thought, I am leaning towards selling by the dose with no guarantee. This is how I would do it:

-Sell by the dose cheaper than what a studfee would cost would benefit those who are lucky/skilled enough to get a mare in foal on the first try.
-Buyer can purchase however many doses they want. Cheaper transport to buy more than one dose at a time.
-Unused doses may be used on other mares, or subsequent seasons (in our breed, any foal with at least 50% pureblood can be registered with the mother studbook based on a DNA test)
-No in foal/live foal guarantee.

Does this sound fair and reasonable for all concerned? How would you tweak the arrangement either as a mare owner or a stallion owner?

Thanks!

[fordtraktor]

LFG is absolutely a requirement for me as a mare owner.

[candyappy]

With no LFG no way would I pay to AI.

[Arlomine]

You will lose a HUGE proportion of your potential clientele with NO LFG.and probably get inferior mares, because no one will want to risk losing a whole season on their best mare without one.

[bingbingbing]

I don’t know your stallion or his marketability. But there are many frozen semen dealers who offer no LFG. I think if the semen is priced reasonably (quite a bit lower than a comparable stallion offering a LFG and fresh cooled), and you have a nice stallion, no LFG could work. It would be confidence boosting to mare owners if you had pregnancies with the frozen semen from their first breeding. If you don’t, I would find a way to get some nice mares in foal to your stallion with frozen.
Depending on your stallion, I think you could get knowledgeable breeders who have a great repro vet and a healthy mare. Or possible a person with an older mare wanting to do a less expensive hail mary breeding. This doesn’t mean they are of poor quality. And you can always so no to a mare you don’t feel is of good quality.
I bred to a stallion who, with all of the fees, ended up being over $3,500. I would’ve been happy to take the risk with my healthy, early teens mare to pay 1k for a shot with frozen and no LFG. The frozen semen would need to be good quality. That said, there are not a lot of stallions in this country that I would pay 1k for frozen with no LFG. I would be more comfortable with $500-750.

[Ozalynda]

In our breed, the average frozen semen price is roughly 2000 euro (for a “breeding”). The semen I, as a mare owner, have used previously has NEVER had a live foal guarantee.
If we say it takes an average of 2 doses (2 cycles) to get a mare in foal, then a dose could cost 900-1000 euro.
I have 7 very nice mares lined up for introductory/test breedings and will not be offering any more for sale publicly before I have proven successful pregnancies from the frozen semen.
The stallion is very high quality and I have already had quite a lot of interest in him from Australia, EU and US. He is being collected for worldwide distribution.

[SusanO]

I have seen the option of buying a dose or a LFG just recently. I believe it was a farm that promoted jumper breeding. I have had friends that have been successful using half a breeding dose of frozen before. If I had a great repro vet and a fertile myrtle like that I might take the risk of buying a dose. Same as buying most frozen doses. I think a lot of people using a LFG may have mares that are older or less fertile or less optimal vetting available. I don’t know your breed but you would need to price it according to what else is offered in the market place. If warmblood there are a lot of high quality younger less proven stallions with doses less than a thousand dollars. So that would be your competition.