I have been trialling Beyond semen extender with Farraway Quicksilver and Bell Tower Banrion’s Hero. I currently have 14 day old semen sitting on my counter at ambient temperature that is still swimming happily!
I am excited about the innovation here and what new technology in semen extenders means for the process of shipping fresh cooled semen. The current system of timing insemination with shipped fresh cooled can be expensive and frustrating for mare owners. If Fedex is a day late, you just wasted a cycle and a shipping and collection fee. With Beyond, mare owners can ship and know the semen will be viable for days after arrival even if it arrives late. It means ovulation inducers can be delayed and given only after FedEx has delivered the semen, so your chances of inseminating right before ovulation are greatly increased.
Using Beyond has a couple more steps to it than regular semen extenders require for the stallion owner. Semen has to be centrifuged so the process is a little more costly and time consuming. For that reason there will be an additional charge for shipping with Beyond. That said, you can have greater peace of mind that you can time insemination correctly, even on a bank holiday weekend!
My collection and shipping costs are currently:
- $350 for collection and shipping with regular extender
- $475 for collection and shipping with Beyond.
I am excited to be able to offer this as an option for mare owners.
