We know the deposit/annual lease fee is confusing. We’ll try to clarify here, but if its still hurting your head just reach out. If its after morning coffee we might be able to explain it to you.

When you purchase your contract from us, that serves as your deposit. You have your very own account and that deposit appears as a positive balance on your account. You won’t receive a cash money refund of this deposit. But you may use it for anything else you’d like. Most folks just put it towards the purchase of the end product – bred recipients or weaned calves. But, you can also use it as payment for shipping fees, embryo storage fees, creep feed, purchase of future or additional contracts.

Where the confusion arises seems to surround how much deposit to send. For the Bred Recipient program you will need to send a deposit for the number of embryos you are planning to send.

Example: if you send us 10 embryos you will also need to send us $10,000.
Then, we will source 12-14 cows for you (see the contract for details) so that 10 will be synchronized, have good observed heats, and have appropriate CL’s and are ready to receive your 10 embryos. Yes, we know they won’t all produce a pregnancy. But let’s be conservative and say that 4 of them do. The end product is going to be worth $13,600.
So, when you pick up your cows you’ll owe $13,600 MINUS $10,000 deposit = $3,600 total.

We can really get into the weeds with this because we know a lot of things can change and we want to be flexible and help you meet your goals.
If you change your mind and want to change calving seasons, or use fewer or more embryos, etc. – don’t worry, we’ll be there to help and the deposit will always be just that – a positive balance on your account until you use it.

For the Weaned Calf program, it’s that very same basis, but just slightly more involved. You still send us the deposit. In this instance, $1,000 buys you access to one recipient cow for one calendar year starting on the date of the first requested transfer OR until she gets pregnant.
When a cow gets pregnant, your contract automatically extends until her calf is weaned. We know this is getting repetitive, but we hate to get into challenging math. So, lets go for the tried and true scenario in which you send 10 embryos and $10,000. If a cow gets pregnant in the first round of transfers, her deposit will be positive in your account, your contract will last until her calf is weaned, and you can subtract the $1,000 from the agreed upon price of the calf at shipping. Inevitably there will be some cows that don’t get pregnant in the first round. We will contact you with the initial pregnancy check results and ask how you would like to proceed. You can choose to keep trying – just send more embryos and we’ll keep going (up to 4 attempts per year per deposit) until you get the desired number of pregnant cows. Or you can be content with the number of pregnancies from round one and choose to throw in the towel. Either way, the deposit per cow is still just a positive balance on your account.
The only difference would be how much is owed in the end. You could choose to chip away at this all year until you get 10 pregnancies which produce ten weaned calves. Weaned calves are $2200. At shipping, you’d owe us $22,000 -$10,000 = $12,000. Or if you got 5 pregnancies out of the first round and then chose to be happy with 5 weaned calves, at shipping you’d owe $11,000-$10,000 = $1000.
So…. you don’t get your deposit back (in cash), but you get back your deposit (in goods and services).

We realize a lot can happen in a year, but we will always keep you updated. We’ll let you know the results of all the reconfirm pregnancy checks and notify you if a fetal loss event has been observed, etc. so that if you choose to exercise your right to make another attempt at pregnancy you can direct us to do so. In any event, the deposit is always a positive balance on your account until the weaned calves ship.