THE COST OF SEMEN PRODUCTION AND THE RATE OF CONCEPTION FOR ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION IN CATTLE

This study was conducted to determine the cost of production of semen and the rate of conception for artificial insemination in eight randomly selected districts of Bangladesh. A sample of 640 adopting farms were investigated. Results indicate that the cost of liquid semen per dose on full-cost and cash cast basis were Tk. 16.17 and Tk. 14.48, while the cost of locally produced exotic semen and imported semen were Tk. 31.25 and Tk. 110.00 respectively. The cost of liquid semen per insemination, per conception and per progeny on full-cost were Tk. 26.65, Tk. 50.64, and Tk. 56.27 respectively and on cash cost were Tk. 23.88, Tk. 45.37 and Tk. 50.41 respectively. The average cost of semen paid by the farmers was Tk. 14.00 and it was higher in urban areas than in rural areas. Out of the cost of A.I. centres, government had subsidized 92.16 percent and the rest 7.84 percent accrued as returns. About 40 percent of the produced semen was lost in the system which could not be used at all. The conception rate on first insemination was 53.6 percent. The rate increased to 73.2 percent upto the last insemination. The difference in conception rate between liquid semen (69.97%) and frozen semen (70.48%) was not statistically significant.