Rustlers Aim at Vulnerable, Valuable ‘Seed’ of Dairy Herds

One midnight last month, thieves invaded the Record Rancho dairy in San Jacinto in search of liquid treasure that is far more valuable, drop for drop, than the richest milk and easier to dispose of than rustled cows.

Inside a steel tank, bathed in liquid nitrogen, the burglars found what they wanted--Vince Record’s supply of frozen bull semen. The culprits cut through a heavy chain, loaded the whole tank on a truck, and left so stealthily that police suspect they are the same marauders who hit another Riverside County dairy that same night.

Bull semen is precious stuff around a dairy barn, and the larceny hit Record where it hurts any dairy farmer most. Cows must be kept either pregnant or nursing to produce milk. Besides losing about $4,100, Record had to work the phones to find enough semen for that morning’s round of inseminations or face a disruption in milk production. “We have to breed every day,” Record said.

Thefts on Upswing

Theft of bull semen has become a serious criminal enterprise across the dairy lands of Southern California and, with at least five new thefts in the last month, seems to be picking up.

More than $50,000 worth has been pilfered in recent months in Riverside County, and San Bernardino County sheriff’s detective Paul Beltz estimates that nearly $200,000 in semen was stolen last year from farms in the Chino area. Many more thefts are not reported, detectives said, in order to keep insurance premiums for dairies from rising.

“It’s happening more in Southern California than anywhere in the United States,” Beltz said. “A full tank can be worth $50,000 to $100,000 if it’s of top quality.”

No arrests have been made in the latest flurry of semen thefts, but investigators in several jurisdictions say it is no coincidence that the thefts are occurring at dairy farms a few hours’ drive from the Mexican border.

Beltz said a small-scale sting operation involving the Border Patrol, Imperial County sheriff’s deputies and the Mexican federal police recently turned up two stolen tanks offered to a Mexican dairy for $200 each.

Lineage Not Important

Demand in Mexico is high and farmers there are not as concerned about the specific lineage of the bull that gave the semen, investigators say. “They know the semen from America is good quality semen,” Riverside County Sheriff’s Detective Bill DeLuna said.

Police say one problem is that stolen semen is surprisingly easy to sell on the black market. Unlike live animals, which are tagged or branded with their owner’s identity, the semen is almost impossible to trace. It also can remain frozen in the tank for several weeks without recharging the liquid nitrogen.

“It’s probably going to Mexico,” said Record, whose family dairy was burglarized twice in six months. “It’s not being sold around here because all the dairymen are watching out for stolen semen.”

Started by Record’s grandfather in 1922, the dairy is about average for the Hemet-San Jacinto area, with 1,000 head of Holsteins. Like most farmers these days, the Records buy their semen out of a catalogue that lists the special qualities of the many siring bulls represented by a given supplier.

Some bulls produce calves who go on to deliver a premium milk high in butter fat; other bulls pass on genes responsible for well-supported udders. From the catalogue the farmer can match the qualities he wants to the genetic shortfalls of his herd.

Record said the recently stolen tank may have contained semen from 40 or 50 bulls, each one matched to one or more cows. Each dose, worth anywhere from $1 to $500, is stored in an eight-inch-long straw and frozen until the desired cow is ready for artificial insemination. A tank can hold as many as 2,000 doses.