Offering Artificial Insemination is a big investment and expense for a small breeder where we live since vet costs for AI are going to be more expensive than farms that can collect, prep and ship without using a vet service. This is addition to the fact that most registries want to make money off of stallion owners doing AI, so they require the stallion owner to buy "permission" to breed by AI and usually require that each shipment be accompanied by a paid for registry certificate. Pretty insane when the registry permission and certificate fees add up to more than the stud fee.

Building a separate breeding shed with breeding equipment and laboratory is a major investment that would require a stallion to sell a lot of breedings in order to be able to even break even on the setup costs. The alternative to maintainining an on-site farm AI facility is is to either haul to a local vet that has the equipment or to stand the stallion at a stallion station which can do the collection.

If we haul to a local vet, there is a yearly $500-$900 evaluation fee for quality testing before the vet will accept the stallion as a haul in candidate for the year. AI charges for collection and prep can run from $300 to $500 per shipment, plus container and Fed-EX. It can be hard to have a life, if one has to be able to haul the stallion on short notice to the vet to be collected, not to mention the vet can require the stallion be dropped off in the morning and picked up in the evening, which means a lot of miles driving back and forth.

If we stand the stallion at a stallion station, there is a minimum of $900 board per month, $500 initial testing and AI collection training fees. But the AI collect/prep for the mare owner usually starts lower at around $200 -$300 per shipment, plus Fed-Ex and the stallion station can be more flexible at collecting the stallion. Also while the stallion is there, it is possible that frozen samples can be collected and stored. Of course, there is a charge for collecting, test freezing, freezing and storing so add on about $1000 for one collection stored for one year and fees are due regardless if it turns out that the stallion's test freeze is not good. . If the frozen needs to be shipped overseas, add on additional board charges for the quarantine period for the stallion, and any testing that has to be done. Sadly the testing is only good for the collections done at that time, so it is important to collect as many straws as possible for storage as the international testing requirements can easily run well over $10,000. The good thing is that if there are frozen straws available, that is it for having to collect the stallion as the stallion station will take care of renting out tanks for frozen and shipping. But the deposit for a frozen tank rental can be well over $1000, which is refunded when the tank is returned, but it is an up front cost to the mare owner getting the shipment. The stallion station might be financially feasable if the stallion sells enough breedings each month to more than pay for the stallion station fees they charge us and we don't have issues with mares not producing live foals where we end up refunding the stud fee and basically end up losing money. As far as frozen, it would seem more reasonable to charge by the straw and not offer a live foal gurantee as it takes a lot more money to invest in producing straws and there is a lot of vet expertise required by the mare owner's vet in being able to use frozen successfully.

So, as a small breeder, let us know what you think is a reasonable route to go as far as AI and we will run the numbers and see what is possible. Please be aware this is our sole source of income, so we cannot afford to lose money and that will be a prime consideraton.