Such as Cassini I, Carthago, and Cor de la Bryère to name just a few. So what problems does this present for Norbert Boley, stallion manager of the Holsteiner Verband? “It has been an absolute learning phase for us that we lost control of selling our semen. The effects of ICSI had a much larger impact than we all suspected. There have been people who were clever and who have been collecting semen and can now make quite a lot of money. I believe we have already been thinking differently for a longer period than many of my colleagues who have said in the past; ‘The business with frozen semen in other countries is another business, where I sell semen and the money that I make is good, so I don’t care about what happens afterwards’.

“I never looked at it this way. The breeders who are paying for a breeding with us should not be treated any worse than the breeders who are buying breedings in other countries, who are getting semen in a package that says ‘you can do with it what you want’. A breeder in Germany can maybe make one foal for €1,000, whereas a breeder in another country may make two, or even five foals if he is clever. I really took the time to look at this problem with Gerard Muffels and lawyers to see how we can change the business, so instead of semen we are selling pregnancies. We supply the semen to the breeder, the semen belongs to us, and when the semen results in a pregnancy the breeder needs to pay the second part of the fee, the pregnancy fee.

“We also do this in other countries. We work a worldwide  system with vets, or people who are managing the sale of semen. They have a semen depot and register precisely what semen is being used for which mare, and how much, then at the end of the year they provide us with a report. When the system works in the way it’s designed to work, every successful insemination is being paid for, and at the moment this is functioning quite well.”..To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber

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