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Breeding Services
North Star Ranch is a full-service breeding facility offering stallion services, shipped semen, comprehensive veterinary services, and mare care.
Comprehensive Veterinary Services
Comprehensive reproductive exams and services by equine veterinarians including;
- Palpation
- Speculum exam
- Ultrasound
- Culture
- Biopsy
- Estrous synchronization
- Embryo transfers
Mare Care
Mares are kept in large paddocks, either singly or in groups, with an
automatic waterer, salt, twice daily hay, and roomy shelters.
Foaling mares
are brought into a box stall at night and watched via foaling monitors.
All
horses receive lots of TLC!
Mares are teased 1-2 times a day during the breeding season and heat cycles are carefully recorded. Additionally, we may use speculum examination, palpation and ultrasound to track follicular activity. When optimal breeding time is determined, semen is collected from the stallions with the use of a breeding phantom and AV (artificial vagina).
In the lab, routine semen evaluation includes qualitative and quantitative measures of volume, motility, morphology, sperm conc./ml, total sperm, and pH. Semen may be prepared for on-farm insemination or to be cooled and shipped.
Why Artifical Insemination (AI)?
Horses have the lowest reproductive efficiency of all domestic livestock. Artificial Insemination or "AI" has been clearly established to produce higher pregnancy rates and foaling rates than natural breeding. AI can;
- maximize reproductive efficiency
- reduce the possibility of injury to mares or stallions
- enhance the genetic process
- permit disease control
Shipped Semen
Shipped Semen eliminates the cost and stress of shipping the mare (and foal), decreases the cost of mare care, and increases the genetic pool - mare owners have access to a larger number of quality stallions.
Before the breeding season starts, there are several factors a mare owner should consider. Mares should have a comprehensive reproductive exam by an equine veterinarian prior to breeding or receiving shipped semen. Heat detection is vital to optimize the timing of the breeding and save the mare owner the cost of additional shipments of semen. Teasing or palpation and ultrasound may be employed to track heat cycles and follicular development. It is also a good idea to evaluate the shipped semen upon receipt.
