I learned a major lesson when I started doing ET as I was storing my embryos in my own tank on the farm. I had a tank rupture and lose the nitrogen and you guessed it... it contained 38 embryos, and about 200 doses of semen. I hate to think what this semen and embryos would be worth today. I have 8 semen tanks and this is the only tank I have ever had any problems with. From that day on, I store all my embryos at the ET center. We also wash all our embryos so that they are exportable to most countries, and that is another reason I store them there. If I stored them in my own tank, they would lose their export status. When I started doing ET, the export market was not a consideration to me. A few years later now, I sell more embryos internationally than I do here each year.
I looked into seeing if my farm insurance would cover loss of embryos and semen stored in my tanks at home. It is possible to get insurance for this, however the additional premium would bevery close to the same as the storage charges at the ET center. I also like the fact that when the embryos are stored at the ET center, it is only professionals who ever handle them.