How Much Does It Cost To Freeze Horse Sperm?

If you have a stellar stallion on hand, you need to ask how much it costs to freeze horse sperm. Preserving their genetic line could help you breed outstanding horses!

There are many reasons why freezing horse sperm is a good idea. Whether you plan to use it now or in the undetermined future, finding an excellent lab to collect and store your stallion’s semen will benefit you.

In this article, I share the cost of freezing horse sperm, the storage process, and why you should consider doing so.

How Much Does It Cost To Freeze Horse Sperm?

Freezing sperm is not as easy as it sounds. You can’t extract it and just pop it in your refrigerator to use whenever you need it. It’s quite an expensive procedure.

If you want to freeze horse sperm, you can expect to pay up to $500 for the initial freeze and monthly installments of $50 and more for storage. Some sperm storage labs have additional fees for straw printing, which can be approximately $135.

These prices differ from lab to lab. The amount of sperm you’d like to freeze and the freezing method also play a role.

How Is Horse Sperm Stored?

After being collected from a stallion, sperm can be stored in liquid form or frozen.

Liquid Storage

If you choose to store your horse’s sperm in liquid form, you need to use their sperm as quickly as possible.

Liquid storage isn’t a long-term option. You’ll need to use the sperm within 1 to 48 hours for the best results.

If you want insemination to occur within an hour after being collected, you should put it in an incubator at 110 – 112°F. If you want the sperm to be frozen for 24 – 48 hours, you’ll need to cool the semen to 40°F.

Freezing Storage

Before a lab freezes stallion semen, they evaluate it to find the optimal freezing method. Sperm differs, and they have to use the correct preservation method to ensure the sperm lasts long.

When the correct method has been identified, semen is centrifuged and concentrated. The horse sperm is then split into straws and placed within liquid nitrogen, where it can be stored indefinitely and used whenever you need it.

Reasons To Collect And Freeze Horse Sperm

Breeders collect and store stallion semen for many reasons. Here are a few:

Artificial Insemination (AI)

AI is one of the primary reasons why horse sperm is frozen. With AI, horses don’t need to be transported from one area to another for breeding purposes.

A stallion can also impregnate more mares at once through AI. He would never be able to reach such a high number if it were done the old-fashioned way!

Preserving Genetics

Some horses outshine others, and they often grow up to be world champions.

Unfortunately, they aren’t immune to aging. To ensure their genetic line carries on, breeders choose to freeze their sperm for future use.

Horses with outstanding performance records from 25 years ago still have frozen sperm somewhere in a lab today. Many mare owners are willing to pay thousands of dollars to get a straw of this genetic line.

Genetics are also preserved to ensure that particular breeds don’t go fully extinct.

Quality Control

Humans and animals alike can have problems with their sperm or have infectious diseases.

Freezing sperm helps to do better quality checks on the sperm count, bacterial growth, and the sperm’s ability to inseminate mares.

Knowing what quality sperm a horse has, gives mare owners more confidence to breed with a specific horse.

Aging & Unexpected Death

Breeders freeze and store sperm if their stallions get hurt or die unexpectedly. Horses also age and lose their ability to perform sexually as they did when they were younger.

Freezing horse sperm ensures a future with the same genetic potential.

Financial Gain

If you have a sought-after stallion, mare owners from all over will want their foals to share genetics with your horse.

There’s a big market for horse sperm, so you can sell it even if you don’t plan on using it yourself. Outstanding race and performance horses can produce semen that sells for hundreds of thousands of dollars per straw!

Buyers will even approach you after seeing your horse perform, so it’s an overall easy way to make money that you can invest back into your ranch.

How Much Sperm Should You Freeze Per Horse?

Freezing sperm ensures that you will have a long-term supply of semen from a specific horse. There is no set rule on how much sperm you can freeze. It also depends on whether you intend to use the frozen sperm or how many mares need the sperm.

If, for example, you want to artificially inseminate mares, you’ll need about 3 doses for each one. Each ejaculation produces an average of 6-8 breeding doses (approximately 40 straws). You can use this average to calculate how much you need to collect and freeze.

In Conclusion

Freezing horse sperm can be expensive, but selling it for a large profit is possible. You can also use the sperm yourself to inseminate your mares if you plan on breeding excellent competition horses.

There are many benefits to freezing horse sperm with the newest technology, and you can keep frozen straws in storage for years!

I hope this article was helpful and that you have a better idea of the costs to expect when freezing horse sperm. If you have any more questions, ask them in the comments!

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