DeGraff Stables
Email | Office: 419.960.7447 | Cell: 419.573.9098
Stallion Management
We are pleased to offer stallion owners a facility that is safe and efficient for management of their stallion. Daily turnouts, exercise and grooming keep him in top physical shape and in good character. In addition our capable and willing staff is dedicated to providing the best customer service possible over the phone or in person to the mare owners or their representatives throughout the breeding process.
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Collection schedules are maintained during the week to meet the ovulating schedules of the mares. We collect and ship cooled semen Monday through Sunday. Each stallion is on an every other day collection schedule. Mare Owners may receive semen by Fed-Ex and airline shipments, or they may Pick up at the farm. When possible, our early morning collections for counter to counter service help mare owners receive semen at a reasonable hour of the day, thus reducing the inconvenience of late night inseminations in many instances. Frozen semen shipments are available daily: Monday through Friday.
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Primarily our business revolves around the stallions that stand the breeding season at DeGraff Stables. Marketing and promotion of the stallion through placed advertisements; web-based or in print, futurities programs for foal engagements and incentives, financial statements, completed contracts and breeding fee collections are a few of the services we provide. By appointment we do welcome haul-ins for collection and shipment.
Semen evaluation and analysis and customized extenders where necessary help us maintain an exceptionally high conception rate in our breeding program year after year.
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Full Semen Evaluations
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Collection and Shipping Standard Schedule
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Breeding Soundness Exams
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Customized Extenders
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Phantom Training
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Haul-In Collection and Shipments by Appointment
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Marketing, Advertising and Promotion
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For stallions standing at DeGraff Stables, a consultation between owner and our farm is arranged to set and direct how best to market and promote the stallion and the stallion owner’s farm and offspring. Attention to details such as developing name and logo recognition by proper advertising promotion is imperative. Within the stallion owner’s advertising budget we help plan media purchases, determine type of publications, number of ads, type and style of ads, flyers and brochures for mailing and help develop and maintain the mailing list; both for print or email distribution. The stallion owner further determines the foal incentive programs and futurities for the stallion to participate in. Care is taken to review and monitor the progress of the promotion.
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From Simple to Complex Evaluations
Stallions may be sent to the farm (haul-in), or services provided on an in-house basis for simple to complex semen evaluations. Stallion breeding services are designed to allow owners the use of their stallion’s semen in a fresh, cooled-shipped or frozen semen breeding program.
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Once your stallion is trained to collect, it is important to determine which semen extender his sperm perform the best in. For this process, we will evaluate the semen once collected, extend it at the correct concentration in a variety of different extenders, pack it in an Equitainer™ and then evaluate the semen at 24, 48 and if suitable 72 hours to determine which extender is the most suitable for your stallion.
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DeGraff Stables offers a full range of commercial stallion breeding services including fertility evaluations, semen collection, evaluation, morphology, processing and breeding soundness exams. The objectives of these services are to provide horse owners with the most current technology available for the reproductive management of their stallions.
Annual Evaluations
In our opinion, keeping accurate, detailed breeding records for the stallion is imperative from season to season to manage him for the best reproductive efficiency.Annually for the stallions standing at DeGraff Stables, we record scrotal size, perform an overall health examination, periodic spermatozoal morphology evaluation and periodically culture of raw and extended semen. We track average number of sperm per ejaculate, average progressive motility, average seminal volume and average sperm concentration, pregnancy rate per cycle and number of cycles per pregnancy.
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Additionally for cooled semen programs we check average progressive motility at 24 and 48 hours post collection and track average number of shipments per pregnancy for cooled semen.
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Semen collection is performed at the laboratory using routine techniques. After semen is collected, it is immediately evaluated and processed for fresh or cooled-shipped use.
The initial semen evaluation includes determination of:
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Gel-free volume,
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Percent sperm motility (total and progressive) and
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Sperm concentration.
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If the semen is to be used for fresh insemination, the appropriate volume of raw semen is mixed with semen extender so that each insemination dose contains at least 500 million progressively motile sperm cells. If the semen is to be used for shipped-cooled insemination, the appropriate volume of raw semen is mixed with semen extender so that each insemination dose contains at least one billion progressively motile sperm cells.
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Fertility and Number of Straws
Typically semen is collected every two to four days; and depending on the stallion’s sperm production an average of 5 to 15 straws can be frozen per collection. Some stallions with large testes can produce 15 to 30 straws per collection. One straw can be one insemination dose when it contains a minimum of 300 million progressively motile sperm cells post thaw. We recommend supplying 2-3 straws of frozen semen per heat cycle per mare; and for booking purposes, sufficient semen should be on hand to cover a minimum of two cycles per mare.
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USDA International Approved Quarantine Facility
Semen for export is frozen in sessions during the months of July to the end of December. Please contact us well in advance if you wish to freeze semen for export from your stallion so we can have the stall space available. Requirements for semen freezing for export are specific for the importing country and generally require 30 days of quarantine at the lab and a set of specialized blood tests and cultures. Semen for domestic use can however, be frozen while the stallion is completing his quarantine, thus maximizes the stallion’s time at the breeding farm. Additional expenses over usual freezing charges can be expected on a bank of semen frozen for export, depending on the destination country and the number of straws. These additional charges are for the blood tests, cultures, special semen extenders, paper work, and veterinary calls. Import permits and health papers are no longer required for stallion semen shipments (frozen or chilled) going into Canada from the USA. Any frozen stallion semen of USA origin, regardless of when it was frozen, is eligible for export to Canada.
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Canadian Shipments
Canadian shipped cooled semen requires special documentation. Please plan ahead if you are looking to order semen from one of our U.S. stallions to be shipped to Canada. As a mare owner in Canada, first you must apply and obtain an Import Permit for the stallion of your choice. These cost $60 for multiple entry (valid for one year) or $35 for a single entry permit and can take 3-5 days to process your request.
Each shipment must then be accompanied by an Original US Health Certificate, signed and stamped with the date of collection, Cost $185 ( including courier), and a copy of the import permit from Canada. These must be presented to Canadian Customs for inspection. We will need 48 hour notice of collection/shipment in order to prepare your shipment.
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After processing, the semen is packaged into an appropriate shipping/cooling container and sent to the mare owner. We primarily ship in an Equitainer, unless the shipment is Canadian bound. Normally Canadian shipments are sent in a disposable container. There is an extra charge for this, however, it is usually much less than the expense to return the Equitainer.Cooled-transported semen is generally shipped to the mare owner via Federal Express via Priority Overnite Service. Semen may be shipped for same day delivery using commercial airlines (i.e. counter-to-counter). We have courier service to the airport, and with proper notification; 24 hours, we are often able to provide it conveniently for pick up by the mare owner on an early afternoon to early evening flight.
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