Missing Trait Information

Missing numerical trait and index information should be given as a decimal point (.), as the value 0 will be taken as an observed value. Matings that include either one or both parents with missing information for a trait are not included in the histogram for that trait.

Warning

Such matings are ignored by MateSel not only in the drawing of histograms, but in the targeting of outcomes when using the Trait Management control tools (i.e. setting Trait Targets). For example, if you set “Average Progeny Value - Set Target” to value 10, MateSel will show the target achieved (red tick meets target line at value 10) when any set of New Matings with known parental EBVs meets that outcome. The other matings with missing trait information are ignored. It is recommended that you supply trait values for all candidates.

Tip

If individuals with missing trait EBV information are pedigree connected to individuals with records, a trick is to fill in the missing EBVs by running a BLUP analysis (eg. in Pedigree Viewer) fitting these EBVs as the ‘phenotypes’ of interest, setting heritability to one, and fitting no fixed effects other than the mean. Check your results – e.g. A newly calculated “missing” progeny EBV is mean of “non-missing” parents’ EBVs.

Predicted progeny trait and index means reported in the dashboards are calculated from all the non-missing parental values – they are the average of the sexes for the means calculated from non-missing values. They are not simply the mean of matings where both parents have non-missing values. Thus, for a mating between a sire with a trait EBV in the input file, and a dam with a missing value for that trait EBV, the sire contributes to the reported progeny mean, but the dam does not.