Select Breeders Services Inc.

About

After many successful years located at Hilltop Farm in Colora, MD, Select Breeders Services relocated January 2011 to a new 13,000 sq ft custom built facility in Chesapeake City, MD. This state of the art equine reproduction facility includes research and clinical laboratories, breeding shed, mare exam room, administrative offices and our frozen semen storage and distribution center. There is also an 8 stall stallion barn, round pen and numerous turnout paddocks within the gated perimeter fencing that secures the entire property.

"I am very excited for the opportunity to put nearly 30 years of experience towards the design of this new facility", says Paul Loomis, Founder and CEO of Select Breeders Service. "While we have very much enjoyed the relationship with Hilltop Farm over the past 18 years and will be forever grateful to them for providing such a wonderful place to develop SBS, we have simply outgrown our facility there. The new location will provide much needed additional laboratory space for development of new techniques and services and enable us to serve our clients more effectively".

SBS will continue to operate a semen collection and processing facility at Hilltop Farm to provide stallion services for their resident and guest stallions and for clients for whom collecting at the Colora, Maryland location is more convenient.

The SBS facility in Maryland is the production laboratory for all SBS proprietary media and extenders for the North American SBS Affiliate laboratories. A separate media preparation laboratory provides a controlled environment for the production of these extenders under ideal conditions. SBS Maryland also administers the SBS quality control program for the entire SBS Affiliate Network under the direction of Dr. Julie Skaife. In addition the Maryland office is headquarters to the global SBS affiliate network comprised of SBS Europe (based at SBS Italia) and SBS Australasia (based at Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital).

Services

Stallion Management

At our facility in Chesapeake City, MD, we offer the following stallion services; breeding soundness examination, phantom training, semen collection and evaluation, processing for cooled semen shipment and semen freezing, storage and distribution. With nearly 30 years experience working with hundreds of stallions of all breeds, SBS can also provide consultation for the problem stallion and investigate semen quality concerns. Our new hydraulically controlled breeding phantom is slowly lowered after the stallion ejaculates to ease the stress of dismounting and minimize injuries and fatigue to the stallion’s back and hocks.

Our laboratory is equipped to perform advanced semen processing techniques and customized freezing protocols for individual stallions to maximize semen quality in a cooled or frozen semen breeding program. We can also perform quality control analysis of shipped in cooled or frozen semen. Our frozen semen storage and distribution program is professional, cost effective and efficient. We ship nearly 700 containers of frozen semen each breeding season. Approximately 30,000 breeding doses are stored in liquid nitrogen in nearly 90 specially designed cryogenic containers that are maintained from a 1500 gallon bulk nitrogen tank located at the facility. SBS is always available to our clients to offer guidance on stallion management, maintenance of breeding records and management of breeding contracts. 

Mare Management

Partnering with Unionville Equine Associates, Select Breeders can now offer mare management services at our Chesapeake City, MD facility. Mare services include breeding soundness examinations, artificial insemination with fresh, cooled or frozen semen and management of the infertile mare.

Embryo Transfer

Paul Loomis has been involved with embryo flushing and non-surgical transfer services since 1983. To expand our services, in 2009 we partnered with Unionville Equine Associates (www.ueavet.com), a veterinary practice in Oxford, PA. SBS will flush and process embryos for cooled transport to commercial recipient programs or for non-surgical transfer into a client owned and synchronized recipient mare. Embryo flush and transfer services can be provided at either SBS, in Chesapeake City or UEA, in Oxford, PA.

Mobile Service

Select Breeders Services in Maryland has two mobile laboratories and offers mobile service to farms and veterinary clinics in the Mid-Atlantic region and East Coast. The mobile lab is fully outfitted with all the equipment to process and evaluate semen including a controlled rate cell freezer and Hamilton-Thorne computer assisted semen analysis system. Our primary travel area extends from our facility in Northeastern Maryland to Southern New York State, New Jersey, Delaware, Southeastern Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA region, and Maryland. Regular trips up to New England and down to Virginia are also available by special arrangement. Please call for more information or email info@selectbreeders.com.

Frozen Semen Import and Export

SBS-MD is a USDA approved center for the collection of semen intended for export out of the United States. We regularly process and ship semen with export qualification for the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, UAE and South America. Depending upon the countries involved, export freezing requires additional health testing and possibly quarantine of your stallion during the freezing session. Please call or visit our FAQ page in the Knowledge Library for more information on what is involved with export freezing.

Interested in breeding to a top European stallion? Select Breeders can also assist you with semen import and we can perform a quality control analysis to determine sperm concentration and motility. This will enable you to adjust the breeding dose if necessary to provide the recommended minimum number of progressively motile sperm/dose.

Staff

Paul Loomis MS, Founder and CEO of Select Breeders Services Inc.

Paul established Select Breeders Services in 1987 and developed the company to become the largest provider of equine semen preservation services in the world. As president of the company, Paul directs the international network of affiliated laboratories. During 1987-1992, Paul was also Director of Biological Research at Hamilton Thorn Research Associates. Hamilton Thorn is best known in the horse industry as developers of the Equitainer system for cooled transported semen and instrumentation for computerized sperm motility analysis. Prior to SBS and Hamilton Thorn, Paul was VP/General Manager of Green Hills Farm, Inc in Aiken, SC a large sport horse breeding facility. Here Paul developed (what was then) the largest commercial frozen semen breeding program for horses in the U.S.

Paul is a recognized expert in the field of semen preservation. He is a graduate of Colorado State University with a M.S. in Physiology (Equine Reproduction). He is the author of numerous scientific journal articles and regularly lectures worldwide in the areas of equine reproduction and semen preservation.

Julie Skaife PhD., Director of Quality Control Assurance

Originally from the Lake District in England, Julie came to the US to study at UC Davis. She graduated with a PhD in Comparative Pathology from the School of Veterinary Medicine in 2003. Her area of research specialization was membrane physiology and cryopreservation of equine and primate sperm. Julie joined SBS-MD in 2006 and manages the Affiliated Laboratory Network and SBS Quality Control Program. Julie also has an MSc in Equine Science from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and competes regularly in dressage and eventing.

Jonathan Clark, Laboratory Manager

Jonathan is the senior freezing technician and laboratory manager at SBS-MD. His other responsibilities include off-site freezing projects and leader of the import/export department. Jonathan is a graduate of the University of Delaware with a B.S. in Animal Science and has been a member of the SBS team since 1994.

Mardy Davidson, Laboratory Technician

Mardy is a graduate of Otterbein College in Westerville OH. With a B.A. in Equine Science and Pre-Veterinary Medicine, she worked for a Quarter Horse breeding farm focusing on broodmare management. After moving east from Ohio, Mardy joined the SBS-MD team in May of 2009; her responsibilities include semen collection, processing for cooled and frozen semen and media production.

Rosella Saville, Distribution Technician

Rosella is a graduate of California State University Fresno with a B.S. in Animal Science/Pre Veterinary Medicine. In December 2011, she joined the SBS-MD team; managing our frozen semen storage and distribution department. Rosella moved east from California in 2005 to campaign her event horses and has made Maryland her year-round home.

Pat Blailock, Office Manager

Pat joined the SBS team in February of 2012 as Office /Sales and Marketing Manager. She has over 18 years of experience in business operations, office management and customer service. Her focus is to ensure that every customer, current or prospective, is informed of the services we provide at SBS and that they receive the highest quality of customer service.

Bud Emmons, Stallion Handler and Facility Manager

Bud is originally from Upstate New York and has worked as a stallion handler for >15 years. He has previously worked with Thoroughbreds at North View Stallion Station (MD, 1999-2001 and PA, 2009-2010), sport horses at Hilltop Farm, MD (2001-2009) and a variety of breeds at Cornell Equine Research Park, NY (1995-2000). His knowledge and experience working with stallions makes him a valuable member of the SBS staff and he will take care of your stallion just like one of his own.

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