How efficient is your semen tank?

Semen tanks are not all alike.    We have now used cryogenic (liquid nitrogen) semen storage for sixty years in the cattle breeding industry.    Some 30/ 40/ 50 year old equipment is still in use.    This is amazing, given the more reputable tank builders still only warranty new tanks for five years…    

Considerations in choice of tanks
The first question is,  “does my tank retain a nitrogen charge a practical length of time, so that it fits into available service routes?”     For most people this will mean a tank capable of a 12-week hold, so it has a safety margin on our eight-week service schedule (we could get snowed out of your neighborhood for a week in a bad winter storm, or have a truck breakdown that takes us a week to get fixed).

The second question is, “am I going to be storing any embryos?”    The embryo is so much more complex than the sperm cell, making it more fragile, it is best it remain as much as possible in liquid nitrogen immersion.    Thus with eight week service routes, tank that has a safety margin after sixteen weeks (such as the newest 20-week hold time models) would insure your embryo is not forced to rise to vapor temperature (-140 F) and plunge back down to liquid temperature (-320 F) on a recurring basis.

The third question is, “how much semen am I going to be stocking?”    We all seem to have the tendency to let semen inventory “breed” (multiply) in our tanks.    Once canisters are filled with canes, it is harder to locate the bull you intend to breed with, maybe harder to extract a straw with the canes all gripping each other.    Newer model tanks of standard size have slightly larger canisters than the earlier models, thus IF you can discipline your buying, you can avoid making the straw extraction from the canister for each breeding slower, putting your stored semen at risk of damage from temperatures rising above -140 F vapor temperature.

The fourth question is, “am I a breeder collecting herdsires, thus needing more tank capacity?”   Keep in mind that larger capacity tanks, especially with bigger neck tube openings to handle wider canisters, cannot retain nitrogen as long as standard size tanks.    You might consider an option to store semen beyond your seasonal use at a storage facility rather than have it all on your ranch.    Otherwise, to spread risk, you could have multiple tanks on site and not keep all of your rare herdsire in a single tank  (eventually, every tank ever made is going to fail—we just have to be prepared for a possibility we do not catch it before it goes “warm” and spoils all the semen content in it.

Mark measures every tank we fill, before he puts nitrogen in it.    Those measurements get written at the bottom of your delivery invoice.    Thus we try to help you monitor each tank.