Methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTL) are genetic variants that influence DNA methylation. In cattle, little is known about the genetic determinism of DNA methylation, either at the level of individual methylation sites (CpGs) or on a global scale. In this study, we investigated the sperm methylome of 262 Holstein bulls obtained by reduced representation bisulfite sequencing. After filtering out CpGs without individual variability or co-localizing with SNPs, we performed sequence-based GWAS of three groups of methylation phenotypes: (1) principal component scores of the most variable CpG sites, (2) average DNA methylation rate for genomic regions (e.g. whole chromosome, gene, promoter), and (3) DNA methylation rates of individual CpG sites. We then examined the SNPs significantly associated with CpG methylation (-log10(P) > 7.3) and classified them according to their proximity to the CpG, i.e. cis (<1 Mb), cis long-range (>1Mb, on the same chromosome), and trans (on different chromosomes). We found meQTLs for all phenotypic categories, most of which had cis-regulatory effects. In addition, our study identified candidate genes involved in methylation pathways. Taken together, these results demonstrate a genetic determinism of DNA methylation in cattle and thus an interplay between genetic variation and epigenetic regulation. CF is recipient of a CIFRE PhD grant from ANRT and APIS-GENE. This work was part of the POLYPHEME project funded by ANR (ANR-21-CE20-0021) and APIS-GENE.