Where do you buy your semen?

Just wandering what people's buying patterns are for purchasing semen.  Do you have 1 distributor that you get all your semen from, and only use the bulls they carry, or do you accumulate your semen from multiple distributors, or do you only purchase from breeders directly.  I'd love to see some comments on this.  Why do you like the distributor/s you use?

So far i've only needed one supplier!

since the select sires truck fills the nitrogen tank so we get some semen from them since they deliver but we tend to pick up some when top sires delivers to the expo. we have dealt with other companies and didn't have bad experiences with them just like top sires a little more.

Cattle Visions is 20 miles down the road so we get some there but we get as much as we can direct from the breeder.

I buy semen from multible sources depending on my needs.  I try to place a few big orders rather than a lot of smaller orders to take advantage of discounts and free shipping.  Last year I placed  semen orders with all of these folks:  Launter Farms, ABS, Genex, Bovine Elite and Cattle Visions.  I bred all my cows AI with no clean up bull so I use more semen than some folks.  I would probably buy all my semen from my  ABS and Genex reps if they carried what I needed.  Both guys have done me many favors including helping with pulling an upside down bull calf in a hurricane, fishing out $100 per straw semen that I dropped to the bottom of my tank.

We buy most of our semen from our Genex rep.  He fills our tank too so he's here on a regular basis.  He has been known to acquire semen from other companies for us too.  I bought some from Cattle Visions and picked it up at Louisville this year. They were nice folks.

Bovine Elite in College Station

SEK and Top Sires primarily.

I like to by directly from the bull owners as they tend to be able to educate me more on the bull and his maternal background, where he fits into their herd and the breed in general more than a distributor that is just trying to push whatever he can.  I find too many of them just don't have much of a grasp for what is going on out there besides whatever the hot new sires are that they are trying to dump you with at that time.  Not trying to be negative, just learn more from indiviual breeders themselves about the bulls that I would use. 

Looks like most people get from multiple people...makes sense b.c one place doesn't carry every bull

Bovine Elite They have a great selection.

I know this sort of strays away from the subject, but who has the best semen, Best Quality, hieghest standards? 

I try to buy from distributors who will deliver personally or don't charge for shipping. I've used ABS, Genex, and Bovine Elite. Great customer service from ABS and Bovine Elite. I've also bought direct from breeders, but I'd rather buy from distributors because I know the semen has most likely been handled properly. I've seen breeders load my tank and not all are as meticulous as me about handling procedures.

bovine elite

Most of the time we buy from either SEK or Cattle Visions because of the wide variety of bulls they handle and can save money on shipping.

CATTLEVISIONS.....EVERYTHING U NEED

I have to admit.  I am a little surprised by the results so far on the poll.  Just from the discussions that have taken place on this board, I would have expected more people to just get their semen from Launters. Nothing against Launters, but it is good to see people using the discretion they are in selecting their sires.

SEK Genetics, they have almost any bull you would want to use and very reasonable on shipping.