Thief steals frozen bull semen worth $70,000

LEROY, Minn. -- It might look like an old milk canister, but the container pilfered from a southern Minnesota farm held a different kind of moo juice.

Much different.

The Mower County Sheriff's Office is searching for cryogenically frozen bull semen that went missing from a farm near the Iowa border earlier this week. The canister was taken from an unlocked barn, according to the unidentified victim.

"To me, they look like old milk canisters used on a farm, about 3 feet high," says Mower County Chief Deputy Mark May. "And the place is off the beaten path. A person would almost have to know that it's there, and know to take that particular item, and where it was kept."

According to the victim, the canister contained about $70,000 worth of semen from "a very valuable bull." May says the victim also told his insurance company frozen embryos also were taken.

Add on the cost of the canister, and that's about $100,000 of missing genetics.

May said no suspects have been identified, but Dar Giess, a past president of the Minnesota State Cattleman's Association, said tracking down the perpetrator might not be difficult.

"Agriculture is a huge business, pumping billions of dollars into the economy," he says. "But, holy cow, it's a small world in cattle."

Giess said while there isn't much paperwork when someone buys semen or embryos, there are still indicators that cattle ranchers look for in identifying legitimate genetic material.

The thief would likely have to sell their ill-gotten gains at a cut rate, which would set off red flags, he says.

"I would be immediately skeptical," Giess says. "They would be identified really quickly."

That leaves few options for the thief, the Pierz rancher says.

"It's pretty brassy," Giess says of the theft. "Either the guy is really dumb and sold the canister for a few hundred bucks, or he's really smart and is going to use it all on his own herd and will try to cover it up (with legitimate purchases).

"It's going to be really tough for him to get full value for his semen."