Semen Freezing

Semen Freezing

May 15, 2012

While training your stallion, we can also carry out a test-freeze on the semen to determine how the semen survives the rigorous freeze-thaw process. We employ a number of different freezing methods that can be trialed to optimize the quality of your stallion’s frozen-thawed semen. Matamata Veterinary Services freezes semen at a concentration of 300-400 million sperm per ml, depending on the stallion. We ensure that more than 300 million motile sperm are provided in each insemination dose of 6 – 8 straws (depending on post thaw motility). Due to the reduced fertility of frozen thawed semen, we recommend that you allow 3 doses of semen per mare that you are freezing, for example if you require semen for 10 mares, we recommend that 30 doses (or 240 straws) are frozen. Of course, if the mare conceives on the first cycle using frozen semen you have 2 doses remaining for use in other mares. The number of doses that we are able to freeze per ejaculate varies greatly between stallions, but we are usually able to freeze 15 – 40 straws per ejaculate depending on its volume and concentration. We aim to collect stallions for freezing on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to optimize the amount of semen collected and to keep semen collection fees down.

Motility is one of many parameters available for assessing semen quality; however motility does not necessarily correlate to fertility, and because of this we highly recommend that a fertility test be carried out on frozen semen prior to the semen being sold commercially.