Balance Strategies

MateSel provides a number of different balance strategies to use with the Frontier control. By default, only the most commonly used strategy is enabled: Hard constraint on Target Degrees. Below we will explore the different balance strategy options and how you can enable them.

Supported Balance Strategies

Hard constraint on Target Degrees	Depending on the value of Target Degrees (TD), this strategy works differently. Remember 0 TD means full genetic gain, 90 TD means full diversity, and 45 TD is an even balance between the two: When TD is below 45, this maintains the solution at or above a given value of Target Degrees (TD). This strategy aims to maximise gain but also omits solutions that break the TD constraint. When TD is greater than 45, this maintains the solution at or below a given value of Target Degrees (TD). This strategy aims to minimise coancestry but also omits solutions that break the TD constraint.
Soft constraint on Target Degrees	Like Hard constraint on Target Degrees above, except that undercutting the limit is permitted, but heavily penalised beyond a 2 degree deviation. This can help with speed of convergence.
Project To Target Degrees Line	This strategy aims for a solution that is most deviated from the origin when projected to the TD line. See the illustration below. Hold a ruler perpendicular to the TD line and move it out to where it last coincides with the frontier – that is where a solution should go with no other issues included. For non-circular frontier shapes, this projected point on the TD line can be outside the frontier, with the solution exploiting the prevailing shape of the frontier to maximise the index implied by the TD line.
Hard constraint on Coancestry	This maintains the solution at or below a given value of parental coancestry. Caution If your constraint cannot be met, all other issues (Progeny Index, traits, etc.) will suffer dramatically while a legal solution is sought.
Soft constraint on Coancestry	Like Hard constraint on Coancestry above, except exceeding the limit by a small amount is permitted, but heavily penalised. This can help with speed of convergence. Caution Same warning as for Hard constraint on Coancestry.

How to enable Balance Strategies

1. Navigate to the “Settings” page, found under the top-left “Menu” button.
2. Under the “Balance Strategies” section, enable the balance strategies you want to use.
3. Click the “Save” button on the settings page.
4. The next time you run MateSel, you can select your preferred Balance Strategy using the icon next to the “Update Target” button as highlighted below

Note

Please note: If you only have one Balance Strategy enabled, MateSel will automatically use that Balance Strategy and not provide an option to select a balance strategy like in the image above.