New Bovine Semen Collection Service.

It’s been nearly 18 months since we started on a project to collect, process and freeze bull semen. It has been quite the journey and like all things with fertility, it is the small bits of detail that matter to get optimum results, that is not always easy. We are now confident and excited to offer our service freezing semen for clients to sell or use themselves!

One observation from our team in the IVF lab is that the quality of the semen once defrosted for bulls varies enormously. Some look like a mass of fresh tadpoles, as it should, some more like a tadpole graveyard, with variation in between.

It’s a fact that different bulls freeze differently. Not only does this vary between bulls, but between collections on different days with the same bull. Even different collections on the same bull on the same day vary!

We have limited control over how well a bull’s semen freezes but we do have control over the amount we can put in each straw. Up to a point, if it freezes less well, you can simply put more in each straw. This reduces the number of straws produced but at least they are capable of producing a calf. However, with really poor freezers it’s not possible to do this.

We believe that a gold standard straw should have about 15 million live sperm per straw to set the user up for success. Our focus is quality rather than quantity, meaning that you may receive fewer but better quality straws with a higher concentration of sperm. Unfortunately some collections will end up being discarded if they are too poor quality.

As always, we are very happy to chat this through with anyone interested.

David