Tullis Matson has practiced Artificial Insemination (AI) in stallions and freezing semen for over 30 years. He began running the small natural covering stud at the family farm in 1989. In 1990 he went to New Zealand to learn the practice of AI before returning home to set up one of the first equine AI only units in the UK.
Tullis formed Stallion AI Services Ltd in 2000 which is one of the most successful stallion collection centres in Europe, offering semen collection services, fertility assessment and worldwide semen export. Collections have been made from over 1100 stallions, across 51 different breeds. Tullis pioneers and implements new advanced techniques, such as Post Castration, Epididymal Sperm Harvesting, using different gradients and specialises in handling and collection from sub fertile stallions. He has carried out research into semen collection, stallion fertility and cryopreservation methods of equine semen and embryos. He has developed bespoke extenders for stallions and harvested semen from post castration testicles. He also works with organisations such as Chester Zoo to help cryopreserve semen from endangered species e.g. Rhino, Lion visiting South Africa in 2019 where he was working with elephants and rhinos. Using knowledge and technology from his lab, semen and tissue samples were collected from 8 elephants and stored in South Africa using the latest technology.
In 2008, Tullis set up Equine Reproduction Supplies which is now the UK’s largest distributor of equine AI equipment and in 2010 was given the exclusive rights to distribute the world renowned “minitube” products in the UK.
Tullis has been working with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust since 2002, being made a Trustee of the Society in 2015. In 2011 Tullis received the Marsh Christian Award for Conservation in Genetic Bio-Diversity. He has been given the award for the technological advances he has brought to the field of equine semen freezing which has enabled some rare breeds to be collected from and frozen successfully for the first time. The award, run in conjunction with the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, recognises significant technical, scientific and practical contributions to the field of genetic bio-diversity. In 2019, Tullis also received the Fellowship of the Royal Agricultural Societies (FRAgS) award in the House of Lords for his success in land-based industries.
In 2020 Stallion AI Services foaled the first Suffolk Punch foal in the UK to have been born using sex-sorted semen. Their technology is a major step towards securing the future for all critically endangered breeds currently nearing extinction.
During the last 18 years Tullis has lectured both national and internationally on all areas of stallion reproduction. He regularly holds private, bespoke courses on centre for veterinary practices and stud farms. Throughout recent years Tullis has lectured at The Annual BEVA Congress, BEVA training courses, The National Equine Forum and, for the past 10 years, on DEFRA approved AI courses.
Over the past two years Tullis has been working on his idea to create a cryopreservation biobank in the UK which specialises in storing living regenerative material from animal species threatened with extinction. From this idea the charity, Nature’s SAFE was born, a living biobank on a mission to save animals from extinction by indefinitely preserving live cells from endangered species.
