| The aim of the current study was to evaluate the fertility of commercially available sexed semen and to economically analyse three assumed strategies for its application in Holstein heifers. In the first part of the study, a total of 426 heifers were inseminated with sexed semen from 7 bulls and 325 heifers were inseminated with unsexed semen from 5 bulls. The pregnancy at 40 and 90 days post insemination, the embryonic loss, the calving, the abortion and the heifer calves rates were calculated. Heifers inseminated with sexed semen had significantly lower (P<0.001) pregnancy-40, pregnancy-90 and calving rates (34, 32.2 and 29.3%; respectively) than those inseminated with unsexed semen (62.5, 57.8 and 51.1%; respectively). The embryonic loss and abortion rates were similar in heifers inseminated with sexed and unsexed semen. There was a clear effect for bull on pregnancy, embryonic loss and abortion rates in sexed and unsexed semen. In the second part of the study, it was assumed that heifers will be inseminated with sexed semen once, twice or repeatedly till achieving 88% calving rate. The economic impact of the three sexed semen application strategies was compared to the unsexed strategy. The sexed once, the sexed twice and the sexed wide strategies achieved 8.7, 8.1 and 13.8% increase in the calf crop return; respectively. In conclusion, even with lower fertility, application of sexed semen could add numerous benefits to the dairy herds. Adv. Anim. Vet. Sci. 2 (9): 535-542.

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