Over the years, I have seen a huge swing in the way things are done. Costs have skyrocketed for the small things like dishes and syringes/needles etc that never seem to get noticed. I have tried my best to keep costs low as possible, here -- I do all the dailly work with the donors, from feeding -- heat checking/health , the entire shot sequence and breeding (LATE at night - hehehe) and then of course all the flush work, lab work, and freezing. There is alot to it, those of you who have had several done will know it isn't a snap of the fingers .
The last several years I have had a large number of donors come in here who were having problems elsewhere for whatever reason. I spend alot of time with these cows, so they have the best chance to work. I use conservative doses on the drugs, and I do not push the cows to flush every 35 days as some do. Some of them will work OK that way, but not for very long.
These donors are from several states, so travel is a big issue. Most of the time, I Never get the chance to transfer any of the embryos -- they are shipped back to the owners and they have them transferred there by a more local tech. In order to make the place keeping cash flowing, I had to start charging per embryo or I couldn't keep it going. There is no charge to store semen or embryos here. I have 3 tanks full of stuff right now, so that costs to leep the tanks serviced too.
As an example -- using Jill's service tech's fees compared to mine --
Here -- flush 300 including drugs
Freeze 10 -- 25 each = 250
Transfer later -- 40 = 400 ======= 950
There Flush 350 including drugs
Freeze 10 --- 150
Transfer 10 x 50 = 500 ============ 1000
I wanted to clarify some of the various responses -- sure -- there are some higher and some lower, that will never change.
The average cost per embryo leaviing here is usually UNDER 65 dollar per egg, sometimes that includes the donor board. I have been called a fussy SOB many times, and I admit that I am -- this is one area where it pays big dividends. I hope the Gods of ET will alow me to keep going for many more years. We will see - hehehe!
Sorry for the long drawn out reply here -- just had too much time on my hands today I guess!
Take care all -- best of luck for 09
Terry