Total bovine semen sales from all reporting National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) members declined 4.7% during the first six months of 2009, reports Gordon Doak, NAAB president.
Doaks made his comments at the NAAB annual meeting in Kansas City in late August.The sales figures include both dairy and beef semen.
This follows a very strong sales year in 2008, when semen sales increased nearly 10% to 43,218,000 units. Of this, 35%, or15.1 million units, were sold to export markets. Last year, semen export sales increased 19.9%.
Dave Thorbahn, Select Sires, was elected NAAB Board Chairman at the annual meeting. Ole Meland, Accelerated Genetics was elected vice-chair, and Robert Welper, Alta Genetics, is the third member of the Executive Committee.
