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Breeding Your Mare
Live Cover or
Artificial Insemination
“So you have
decided to breed your mare?” “Well, yes—but I can’t make up my mind
which stallion I want to breed her to. One’s in California, one’s in
Illinois and the other is just down the road”…. If you are a horse
breeder, or soon to become one, you have had or will have a conversation
like this one.
Recent advances in equine genetics and reproduction, along with glitzy
breed magazine stallion issues and the internet, have opened a whole new
dimension of choice to horse breeders all over the world.
Live cover, while still the primary means of horse breeding in sheer
numbers, has its drawbacks. Artificial Insemination offers wider
selection and the convenience of on farm breeding, but it too has its
negatives.
Lets face it, most of us are “horse poor” no matter what rung of the
economic ladder we perch… The more disposable income, or credit (sigh)
available to feed our equine addiction, the more we spend! We all want
the “best” that we can afford and we want to make our dollars stretch as
far as they can. So inevitably, cost is a driving or determining factor
in many of our breeding decisions. Let’s take a quick look at some of
the big Pro’s and Con’s of both breeding options.
Live Cover Advantages- 1. mother nature knows best , conception
rates approach 66% of all healthy mares live covered on their first
ovulation cycle 2. Generally, a mare in standing heat can be teased and
served by an experienced stallion in very little time, with very little
management required. 3. Professional costs beyond the breeding and board
fee may be minimal.
Live Cover Disadvantages- 1. Transporting your mare or your mare
and foal to the breeding shed for service. 2. Boarding your mare and
foal in a new bacterial environment that neither she nor her foal have
developed protective resistance or antibodies towards. 3. Risk of injury
to all parties involved. 4. Sexually transmitted diseases.
Artificial Insemination Advantages- 1. Wider selection of
stallions e.g. transporting semen overnight rather than shipping or
transporting your mare. 2. Convenience- with a couple of phone call
things can be set in motion. 3. Quality of semen i.e. concentration of
sperm and progressive motility can be determined. 4. Lesser chance of
injury or STDs.
Artificial Insemination Disadvantages- 1. Mare management- you have to
know where your mare is in her cycle and when to order semen. Note: Well
managed reproductively healthy mares have the same conception rates with
A.I. as live covered healthy mares.2. Professional Services- (an
advantage to your mare and chances for conception but potentially a
disadvantage to you as relates to added costs) you need a Vet to palpate
and ultrasound your mare to determine if she has or when she will have a
breedable folliclel of 30mm plus and; to inseminate the mare when the
semen arrives. (Note a skilled technician can inseminate a mare, its not
difficult, but invasive palpations and ultrasounds are veterinary
practice and require a license in nearly all states-- unless the mare in
question is owned by the person performing the exams.)
Let’s cut to the chase--- The bottom line is that unless your
mare has reproductive problems (which, by the way-- you are more likely
to discover through A.I. management than live cover if its absent
veterinarian involvement) the costs are about the same to breed live
cover versus Artificial Insemination. Unless of course you are planning
to breed to old Joe at a neighbor’s farm for a 150 bucks!
For live cover adding up transport costs to and from, even just across
the state at today’s fuel prices is hefty. And, if you don’t own or
can’t borrow a truck and trailer and have to use a shipper, better brace
yourself! Then add mare care board bills, vet bills and stud fee… which
can be quit high at some places, if you aren’t around to keep an eye on
things.
For Artificial Insemination with cooled semen. Its the same stud fee,
plus a collection and shipping fee- modest really, between $100 -$200,
and on top of that on your end is mare management in the form of vet
farm calls, ultrasound fees and insemination fee. Ultrasounds can run
from $20.00 to about $50.00, a farm call a comparable amount. It may
take 2 or 3 trips to get her bred, unless you get lucky and have your
mare teasing like mad to the gelding across the fence. Then you might
get by with the bare minimum, a visit to determine follicle activity and
call for semen and a second to inseminate, and a third to check for
pregnancy about 15 days later.
Advice to heed- Live cover or A.I., Know who you are dealing with. There
are a lot of disreputable folks in the horse industry. Ask questions,
ask for written breeding agreements, ask for references, ask for or
research conception rates on the stallion of interest. Ask exactly what
the stallion owner/agent means by Live Foal Guarantee and in the case of
transported semen ask what quality assurance guarantee there is if you
receive a bad shipment
Hope this has been helpful and that your mare gives you the foal you
have always dreamed of.
Brad Woodruff, CHBOA Director
Aztlan Farms
Brad
Woodruff
18875 Atterberry Street
Petersburg, IL 62675
217-632-2096 |
