Introduction to MateSel

MateSel is a tool available to Sheep Genetics client’s to help with mate selection and allocation. The program created by Brain Kinghorn, formerly of University of New England, assists in balancing emphasis on genetic gain and maintenance of genetic diversity.

Mating outcomes will be reported by submitting a list of possible males, possible females, desired gains as well as constraints on long term and short term inbreeding. The program will run to get the best possible choice of individuals to select and the best arrangement of mate selection/allocation.

The program builds a frontier as it is running the algorithm, where each point on the frontier represents an optimal mating list for the corresponding relative emphasis on progeny index and parental co-ancestry. An example of the frontier is given below (Figure 12).