A large majority of dairy cows in the US, Canada and European countries are artificially inseminated. Artificial insemination (AI) of beef cows is also popular, particularly in purebred herds. The advantage of AI over natural service is that it facilitates rapid genetic improvement by allowing use of only the top bulls. Some bulls have sired more than 100,000 offspring via AI. Semen is most commonly collected from bulls in bull studs using an artificial vagina (AV).

Semen collection from bulls using an AV requires three people: one to handle the teaser animal, one to control the bull and one to collect the semen. Successful semen collection with an AV depends on the bull being comfortable around people, and they need to be trained to use the AV