The National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) recently reported the consolidated report of annual semen units in 2023 for the categories of domestic sales, export sales, custom collection and imported units for dairy and beef breeds. With approximately 95% of the U.S. artificial insemination industry represented by NAAB members, these annual statistics provide an accurate insight of the sales of U.S. bovine semen.
“After reaching new records for units sold in 2021 and successfully managing two years of disruptions to the supply chain and public health challenges during Covid, the global downturn post-Covid continues to impact the genetics industry, resulting in a second consecutive year of decline in total dairy and beef units sold,” said Jay Weiker, president of NAAB.
Globally, dairy producers continue to adjust their reproductive management programs and make breeding programs that provide the best economic return for their business. Producers are using different combinations of conventional and gender-selected dairy semen, along with beef semen, to improve their bottom line. In the U.S., the type of semen used by dairy producers has shifted, and the largest category in 2023 was gender-selected dairy semen at 8.4 million units, followed by beef on dairy at 7.9 million units and then conventional dairy at 7 million units.
New to the NAAB semen sales statistics is the reporting of heterospermic semen units. 2023 semen sales reveal the newfound popularity of the heterospermic beef product at 1.8 million units sold with 1.3 million being domestic sales. This makes heterospermic beef the second largest ‘breed’ of beef semen sold, following Angus in first place.
Click here for the complete 2023 report from NAAB.
