text: Police are investigating the theft of about $70,000 worth of bull semen from a farm in southern Minnesota. Mower  County Sheriff Terese Amazi said farmer Daniel Weness, of LeRoy, reported on Tuesday that a storage canister with vials of bull semen was taken from his unlocked barn. The canister was worth about $500, and the vials of semen were worth from $300 to $1,500 apiece. Scroll down for video . About $70,000 worth of bull semen was stolen from a farm in southern Minnesota sometime between April 1 and April 7 . The Semen, stolen from Daniel Weness's farm (pictured) was taken from an unlocked barn. A $500 canister held vials of semen worth between $300 and $1,500 each . The theft happened sometime between April 1 and 7. The man said the only time he and his hired hand were away from the farm was on Easter Sunday, according to the Austin Daily Herald. Police have no suspects. Chief Deputy Mark May said that there is a market for bull semen because it helps farmers on transportation costs of putting a bull and a cow in the same pen to breed. 'A lot of people purchase bid on it or purchase it instead of transporting their animals to and from a site,' he said. 'They can just purchase a vial of bull semen and inseminate their cow and I guess it's just more reliable that way.' Mark May, chief deputy of the Mower County Sheriff's Office said that there is a market for bull semen because it helps farmers reduce transportation costs of animals . Frozen semen can live for many years, often outliving the bull it originally came from, according to the Washington Post. 'A lot of farmers these days use artificial insemination to increase genetic diversity within their herds,' Linnay Yarger, an agriculture teacher at Austin High School told KAAL. 'The range in value depends on the bull it comes from,' she added. 'Some genetic qualities are more highly sought after than others, so the higher priced semen is coming from maybe an award winning bull or a quality that is sought after.' Welness said he has about 80 animals on his farm.
target: Daniel Weness reported on Tuesday that a storage canister with vials of bull semen had been taken from his farm .
  The $500 canister held vials worth between $300 and $1,500 each .
  Theft happened between April 1 and 7, and Weness was away on Easter .
  There is a market for bull semen because it helps farmers on transportation costs of putting a bull and a cow in the same pen to breed .