Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of failure to freeze semen due to semen quality.
Highlights
Bull breeding soundness exams (BSE) are typically performed on yearling bulls and annually on herd bulls
Over the ten years, 21% of ejaculates met all freezing quality standards, 11% of all ejaculates collected did not have a high enough motility to be considered satisfactory for a breeding soundness exam (BSE), and 63% of all ejaculates did not reach the motility quality threshold for freezing
When evaluating primary sperm abnormalities, 87% of ejaculates had less than 20% primary sperm abnormalities
Summary
21% of ejaculates met all freezing quality standards, 11% of all ejaculates collected did not have a high enough motility to be considered satisfactory for a breeding soundness exam (BSE), and 63% of all ejaculates did not reach the motility quality threshold for freezing. Ejaculates from bulls ≤ 12 months of age produced ejaculates that would not meet satisfactory levels of a BSE 15% of the time. Ejaculates from bulls 13–18 months of age produced unsatisfactory ejaculates for motility for a BSE 6% of the time. When evaluating total sperm abnormalities per ejaculate, 77% of ejaculates met the threshold of less than 30% total abnormalities. Ejaculates from bulls ≤ 12 months of age failed to meet the total sperm abnormality threshold 28% of the time. These results highlight one of the main difficulties of collecting freezing quality semen, in which semen meets the standards of normal spermatozoa but where most samples do not meet needs for progressive motility. This beef cattle reproduction is available in Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports: https://newprairiepress.org/kaesrr/vol8/iss1/13
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