Semen production in artificial insemination bulls in Norway

Abstract

Semen production data from 792 Norwegian Red AI bulls, of 46 sires, were analyzed. Semen production was affected by AI center, year and season of collection, number of months the bull had been collected, and sire (each P < 0.01). Heritability for produced accepted doses was estimated to be 0.34 (±0.13). This should allow a successful phenotypic selection for this trait. A negative correlation between number of accepted and number of discarded doses (−0.82±0.11) was found. Selection based on number of accepted doses per bull will therefore result in improvement of semen quality.