Modern breeding programs are built around the challenge of balancing several key goals:
- Genetic improvement of economically important traits
- Improved uniformity, creating more consistent performance and product quality for end consumers
- Genetic diversity, ensuring continued genetic progress across generations
To achieve these aims, structured programs often concentrate selection pressure on a small number of elite animals. While this approach can accelerate short-term gains, it also leads to a greater accumulation of relatives within the herd. Over time, this reduces genetic variation — limiting future selection options and potentially limiting long-term genetic progress.
The solution lies in managing genetic diversity, while still making gains in the traits that matter. This is one of the most difficult but essential parts of breeding program design.
Traditionally, planning matings to achieve this balance has been time-consuming and complex, requiring manual sorting, spreadsheet modelling, and subjective judgment. MateSel simplifies this process — delivering quick, data-driven solutions that consider all available pedigree, EBV, and selection index information.
MateSel is specifically designed to help breeders navigate the competing priorities of genetic gain, inbreeding control, trait improvement, and herd structure — providing an optimal balance to support long-term, sustainable genetic gain.
