Someone stole $50,000 of bull semen from a truck in Turlock

Photo: Tomas Ovalle, Special To The Chronicle Dairy cows at a farm in Turlock.

Someone just gained the capacity to artificially inseminate a lot of cows.

Almost 3,500 units of top-shelf bull semen were stolen out of a truck in Turlock on Sunday, a haul worth $50,000 according to farm owner John Azevedo.

"The genetics that these bulls have in them is out of the top 1 percent of the world population," Azevedo told CBS Sacramento.

Video: Turlock bull semen stolen video

Most cows are artificially inseminated so collecting and selling bull semen is a crucial step in the bovine reproductive process. Farmers send the high-grade genetic material to farms in California and worldwide.

In all likelihood, the thieves had no idea they were stealing some of the world's best bull semen — they also stole gas from the truck before taking off with their haul.

The semen was stored in special tanks full of liquid nitrogen. If the unwitting thieves try to handle the liquid nitrogen, they could risk frostbite or cryogenic burns from the incredibly cold liquefied gas.