Influence of bull age, ejaculate number, and season of collection on semen production and sperm motility parameters in Holstein Friesian bulls in a commercial artificial insemination centre.

Abstract

In the current era of genomic selection, there is an increased demand to collect semen from genomically selected sires at a young age. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of bull age, ejaculate number, and season of collection on semen production (ejaculate volume, sperm concentration, and total sperm number; TSN) and sperm motility (prefreeze and post-thaw total and gross motility) parameters in Holstein Friesian bulls in a commercial artificial insemination (AI) center. The study involved the interrogation of a large dataset collected over a 4-yr period, (n = 8,983 ejaculates; n = 176 Holstein Friesian bulls aged between 9 mo and 8 yr). Bulls aged less than 1 yr had the poorest semen production and sperm motility values for all parameters assessed compared with bulls older than 1 yr (P < 0.01). First ejaculates had greater semen production and greater prefreeze motility values than second consecutive ejaculates (P < 0.01), but despite this, there was no difference in post-thaw motility. When subsequent ejaculates were collected from bulls aged less than 1 yr, semen production and sperm motility did not differ compared with mature bulls. Semen collected in winter was poorest in terms of sperm concentration and TSN, but best in terms of post-thaw motility (P < 0.01). In conclusion, second ejaculates can be collected, particularly from bulls aged less than 1 yr, without a significant decrease in post-thaw sperm motility, thus may be a useful strategy to increase semen availability from young genomically selected AI bulls in high demand.