[luckyinkentucky]

I'm doing my first AI this year, and need advice on what to buy. I'm going to get the straws this weekend, but I'm clueless on which gun to buy. I see French style, continental style, different sizes,... Any advice and information would be appreciated.

And if anyone knows of used equipment for sale I would be interested in that too.

Thanks! Wish me luck!

 

[Caprice Acres]

If you're getting straws, you must already have a tank.

I have the Hi-bred gun. On a facebook goat AI group, a lot of people really like the gun. As a fairly new to AI person myself, I find it very easy to use.

I have the bio-light and bio speculum too. I don't really like the bio light, but I like the bio speculum. A LOT of people on that goat AI FB group REALLY like a little penlight they bought at O'reilly Auto Parts - usually at the front desk aparently. I haven't gotten one yet because I have no idea where the closest O'reilly place is yet and haven't googled it. Penlight just clips into the inside of the speculum.

 

[luckyinkentucky]

Thanks, I'll check out that gun. We have an O'Reilly's in town so I can pick up a penlight.

Yes, we bought the tank this past summer, so I finally did something in the right order -lol! :clap:

 

[Goatsandsheep]

Hi I have a question about semen tanks. I know very very little about the whole AI thing. I was talking to a pig breed a couple of weeks ago who AI all his sows. I ask if he had a semen tank or used the vets. He said he uses a wine refrigerator. I had know idea how different semen is for different animals. Has anyone heard of use a wine refrigerator for semen before? and yes he has a great success rate.

 

[Caprice Acres]

The swine farmer is using FRESH extended semen which, with swine, is far better than using frozen swine semen to my understanding. Goat semen is not shipped in this fashion that I'm aware of. Different species do AI differently because not all species' semen freezes readily for long term storage. It would probably work with fresh shipped semen in goats, but you have to collect 'on demand', which most people do not do.

The benefits of frozen semen is that we do not know how long it can last - but you can have 20 year old straws still fertile/motile enough to settle does. Wether or not thats progressive breeding or not is arguable... but you could own a buck 10 years ago that would be PERFECT to use on a doeling you had born this year... if he's frozen in the tank, that's still possible.

Anywho, I have a MVE XC20 from Goode cattle company. Cheapest I could find, and most people love theirs. First one on this page:
http://www.goodecattle.com/tanks.htm

You will need to fill the tank when you get down to 10cm of nitrogen or so. A new tank should hold well for 3-4 months, depending on how often you open it. The tank I posted is a 20L tank. For me, it costs 45.00 per fill

 

[Goatsandsheep]

Thank you Mygoat.