Artificial insemination is a simple process in which frozen semen is delivered to cows that have been in estrus (heat). The semen is collected from bulls; is evaluated for quality; has egg yolk (for an energy source), glycerol (to protect cells from lysing when frozen), and antibiotics (to prevent disease) added to it. Then it is placed in an automatic machine that loads the straws and prints the breed code, bull name, registration number, and stud code on each tube. Sometimes date of processing is also printed. The straws are slowly cooled to the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-273 degrees F). They are packaged in bundles of five or 10 straws and placed in semen tanks for storage and sale. The straws are taken from the tank and placed in a warm water bath for about a minute to allow them to thaw (96 degrees F) before insemination. The straw of semen is placed in a metal insemination gun (a hollow tube with a plunger) and covered with a plastic sleeve (for sanitation). The inseminator (with a long plastic glove or sleeve) inserts his or her arm into the cow's rectum and locates the cervix. The cervix is mostly made of cartilage, which makes it hard and easy to locate. The gun is inserted into the cow's vulva and placed in the vagina against the cow's cervix. The inseminator finds the rear (distal) opening or "os" of the cervix and slowly and gently slides the cervix over the insemination gun until the tip of the gun is at the forward opening of the cervix where it joins with the uterus. At this point, the inseminator depresses the plunger slowly and then removes the gun.

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