Clear Creek Farms

Semen Tank
In May we ordered a MVE ET23 Semen Tank (1200 straw capacity and approximate 5 month holding time), along with an AI kit and 12 straws of semen, from Superior Semen Works. Instead of shipping the semen, the Mastermans agreed to deliver the straws, along with the tank, on their way to ABGA Nationals in West Monroe, LA. As a convenience to us, Geoff and Nancy charged the tank to assure it would hold the liquid nitrogen ”chill.” On the side of the road, off I-65, the transfer was made. They checked our tank and determined it didn’t have and adequate amount of liquid nitrogen, so they took another tank and poured the liquid nitrogen from it to our tank, bringing it up to a 33 on the scale. To transfer the semen straws (2 from 2 bucks, 3 from 1 buck and 5 from another), Geoff poured some liquid nitrogen from a tank into the lid of a styrofoam cooler. He then withdrew each straw from his tank, one at a time, putting them into the liquid nitrogen where they verified the data on each straw. Next he put the straws in our tank. I drove the truck to meet the Mastermans, planning to haul the tank in the bed of the truck. Wrong. Geoff insisted I seatbelt it in on the passenger’s side. A semen tank passenger in a pick up truck, whose shocks have seen better days, is noisy. The canisters click, clink, clinked all the way home.
Tank seat belted in car
Arriving home the tank was housed in the storage building. The next weekend we went to Fayetteville to pick up, KWM’s Hercules’ and KWM’s Enhancer II’s semen we had collected last November. Knowing the Spencers had collected a good-looking buck, we traded straws of Hercules’ semen for a couple of straws of their buck. We discovered our new tank didn’t come with spare canes and goblets. We had to temporarily store our ‘traded’ semen in the top of one of Hercules’ goblets. Back at home, there was paperwork to be completed. Signed service memos were copied and mailed to Robert and Sydney, and an inventory of all our straws, along with the storage ID and location was recorded. We ordered goblet racks (cane) and straw goblets from Hoegger Supply. We carefully sorted our straws, and now each buck has his own, or more than one, goblet. The tank was loaded back into the truck – seat belted in – for the trip to the barn. We determined following our first attempts at AIing the barn was not a great place to house the tank due to the heat/humidity. So one again, it was seat belted in the truck and moved to the house, this time to reside in our spare bedroom closet. Periodic checks indicated the liquid nitrogen was going down – not at an unacceptable rate, but it was still falling, maybe even from being checked. Thus began our search for liquid nitrogen. Robert Spencer had told us his liquid nitrogen was delivered to his home quarterly. But since we live over an hour away from the Spencers, we decided to find a supplier in Lawrenceburg. When that effort proved unsuccessful, we tried Huntsville, AL. After several calls we found one supplier, but we would have to take our tank to him and be at his office between 3:30 and 4 on a Thursday afternoon. We kept looking. Finally we called Robert Dragland of GENEX and left a message. Six weeks after getting our tank and with the liquid nitrogen down to 10, we carried the tank, seat belted in the back seat of the car, over to the Spencers where we met Mr. Dragland. We now have a fully charged tank – and a contact that lives about 15 miles from us.
Liquid nitrogen home delivery truck
The actual filling of the tank was quite easy. A hose connects to the large tank on the back of his truck and runs to the semen tank. The flow is started, and you just back up and watch the steam vapor until the tank is full.

Mr. Dragland filling the tank
During our visit with Mr. Dragland, we discovered that he has tank supplies, and if we had been in to AIing cows, we could have purchased semen from him.
Goblet labels
We now have our tank inside the closet of the guest bedroom, waiting for the next trip to the barn for our next AIing. Mr. Dragland suggested the tank sit on strips of wood to allow circulation under the tank, so we have a throne for it.
After a second collection, our tank contains even more straws of KWM's Hercules plus straws from KWM's Lucky and a few others that we purchased.
Bedroom home for the Tank


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