Semen storage

[regolith]

I've got a few straws in the bank that have been there five years now. Handled twice a year by my AI company, transferring from their storage to my bank and vice versa.

Could those be considered good to use? I was planning tossing them but wouldn't mind putting a few in cows first, if the darn critters would just cycle.

I've also got a few straws left of a bull that achieved a 15% conception rate last year on my farm, it was his first collection and wasn't good. The company replaced those straws but I used seven on one day and got six returns three weeks later. What would you do with the remaining eight straws? I pay about 50c/straw a year for storage. So it's more a question of tossing them out or trying them in cows I can afford to cull.

 

[inyati13]

I've got a few straws in the bank that have been there five years now. Handled twice a year by my AI company, transferring from their storage to my bank and vice versa.

Could those be considered good to use? I was planning tossing them but wouldn't mind putting a few in cows first, if the darn critters would just cycle.

I've also got a few straws left of a bull that achieved a 15% conception rate last year on my farm, it was his first collection and wasn't good. The company replaced those straws but I used seven on one day and got six returns three weeks later. What would you do with the remaining eight straws? I pay about 50c/straw a year for storage. So it's more a question of tossing them out or trying them in cows I can afford to cull.

I don't have your answer, but I am curious why they have to be transferred twice a year? How does a bank system work? I have my own tank and they never come above the frost line.

 

[dun]

As long as it was handled properly the semen still should be good almost indefinitly

 

[regolith]

As long as it was handled properly the semen still should be good almost indefinitly

That's good to know. Thanks.

Inyati, the bank is only on farm during the mating season then the AI company take it back for storage - they don't leave the semen in the bank, it's all taken out and counted and put into their own storage facility. Both the main AI companies here do it that way.
Bank = tank it's the same thing, just a different name; I don't use the word 'tank' for CT's benefit because it can mean so many other things and wouldn't be recognised as a bull pen by another NZer. (I sometimes get funny looks using the term "AI" we call it "AB" in NZ)

 

[bse]

Id think the semen is ok from being handled if handled right, but the bull that has 15% conception that you know theres a problem id thaw it and discard it. To much time and effort involved to use something you know is no good.

 

[regolith]

Id think the semen is ok from being handled if handled right, but the bull that has 15% conception that you know theres a problem id thaw it and discard it. To much time and effort involved to use something you know is no good.

I think you're right. It was supposedly only the bull's first collection that was bad, but I've got no confidence in this batch either.

If the five yr old semen is still good I don't really have a reason to throw it away apart from that annual storage fee. Just got a limited number of cows in the herd he'd be great for and usually pick a Swiss or Red breed bull instead of the Montbeliard.

 

[wbvs58]

If your confident of the semen use it. If your not confident ditch it. I find anything I a m not 100% on for any reason tends to get left and never used.
Keñ

 

[dun]

Why don;t individuals keep their semen in their own liquid nitrogen tanks?

 

[cow pollinater]

Double up and/or use it with a straw of something else. It sucks for sire ID but a pregnant cow is a pregnant cow and the money is the same no matter how she gets there.
If the semen is bought and paid for find a place to stick it. All it can do is help.

 

[regolith]

Why don;t individuals keep their semen in their own liquid nitrogen tanks?

That could be done if you could convince anyone to keep it fuelled with nitrogen ;-)
I've been told a couple times that my bank is the only one 'out in the field' at the end of the season; everything is geared up for seasonal calving here so most farmers who have banks only keep them for six weeks, once or twice a year.
Doesn't seem like many are sensible like me and keep it on hand for the entire mating in case all the bulls go lame. I'll be glad to see it go back in Jan I must say - it's taking up space in the dairy and I don't have the discipline to *not* mate a cycling cow seventeen or eighteen weeks after the start of mating.

It's like that with calf feed too - I now buy everything I require in July and store it in a shipping container because I know from past experience that I can't get a 20% grower feed of any type in late November and won't even be able to get 14% in December, as the mills stop making it as soon as demand falls off.

 

[cowgirl_jenna]

It's like that with calf feed too - I now buy everything I require in July and store it in a shipping container because I know from past experience that I can't get a 20% grower feed of any type in late November and won't even be able to get 14% in December, as the mills stop making it as soon as demand falls off.

Wow, things really are seasonal there aren't they! Thanks for sharing how things are done where you live, its interesting to see how they compare with "here"! I guess I take for granted that i can drive to the feed mill and they will make any type of feed I want year around.
We too have some pretty old semen in our beef tank(bank), but its nothing far as age compared to our dairy farm tank as there are some very old ampules in there yet! I think straws came around in the 1960 era if I'm correct? So they have some age on them.
Jenna

 

[dun]

It's like that with calf feed too - I now buy everything I require in July and store it in a shipping container because I know from past experience that I can't get a 20% grower feed of any type in late November and won't even be able to get 14% in December, as the mills stop making it as soon as demand falls off.

Wow, things really are seasonal there aren't they! Thanks for sharing how things are done where you live, its interesting to see how they compare with "here"! I guess I take for granted that i can drive to the feed mill and they will make any type of feed I want year around.
We too have some pretty old semen in our beef tank(bank), but its nothing far as age compared to our dairy farm tank as there are some very old ampules in there yet! I think straws came around in the 1960 era if I'm correct? So they have some age on them.
Jenna

And before ampules were magic wands, before that was fresh