You Could Buy One Cheaper...Weighing It Out

Once we decided on a stallion, we had to decide on live cover or A.I.

Cost of stud fee: $450

Booking fee: $100 non-refundable, applicable to stud fee

Cost of collection of semen: $250

Container deposit: $250, $200 re-embursed upon return of container

Shipping Costs for Semen: Overnight FedEx Counter to Counter: $125 (estimate)

My vets charge for ultra sound pre A.I.: $45

My vets charge for insemenation: $85 (this included office visit fee)

My vets charge for ultra sound at 15 days to check for pregnancy: $45

Both ways for breeding required a negative culture for Horse Girl.
Cost of culture: N/A

Why N/A?  Because my vet forgot to send it to the lab and had to redo it, and because of the error, didn't charge me!  (0:

So A.I. total estimated costs if Horse Girl took on the first try: $1050.87 

These are direct costs.  

Indirectly I'd have to pay for fuel to get the the vets office and back at least 3 times.  My truck gets 14 mpg on a good day and the vet is 30 miles from my house.

So indirectly another $78.87 in fuel.

Grand total (estimated) for A.I.: $1128.87
If Horse Girl doesn't take on the first try, then we would add another $600 if we don't short cycle her, add another $75 if we do short cycle.

Live cover requires a Coggins because we are out of state: $46

Live cover will also include board while she is a the stallions.  $5 a day mare care with my hay, $7 with theirs.  I figured half a month with my hay and half a month with theirs: $180.00

Horse Girl also wouldn't come home with out an ultrasound confirmation of pregnancy: $45

Live cover total direct cost: $721

Live cover indirect cost:  Wasn't sure when the decision was made, but I figured in $500 (one way) for travel and lodging.

Grand total (estimated) for live cover: $1721.00

So we talked about it and decided that we would do live cover.  Generally you have more success with live cover, but Horse Girl's foaled before and "they" say that maiden mares actually have a harder time "catching" with A.I. than mares who have foaled before do.  Horse Girl only has a live cover history when being bred, and she's never missed with this method, so I think its a good choice for her.  This gives Mindy and I an opportunity to take a road trip...  It doesn't necessarily make fiscal sense, but it's all about the journey sometimes.

This also blows any money that "could" be made with the 3x's stud fee (seems to be a general rule of thumb or so I've been told) for pricing the foal.  3x's stud fee only comes out to $1350.  If you've a glass half empty person, I've just "planned" to loose money.
Genius aren't I!?  LOL!!