Online JerseyMateTM Tutorial
1. Go to infoJersey and log in to your customer account.
Never logged into infoJersey before? Please see the Logging into infoJersey tutorial that explains how to set-up an account.
2. Once logged into the website, hover over the ‘Tools’ tab, then select ‘JerseyMateTM.'
To access JerseyMateTM, you will need to be enrolled in REAP (Registration-Equity-Appraisal-Performance) or Total Performance Evaluation (TPE).
3. From there, you will be brought to the home page of JerseyMateTM.
If you haven’t run a mating before, this section will be empty. This displays all of the previous matings ran through your account on JerseyMateTM.
4. To create a new mating, select ‘Create a new Mating Group.’
A. Name your mating
This can be whatever you wish. Just make sure it’s something you’re going to remember the reference to in the future.
5. Now you will add females or bulls to the mating.
A. Select Add/Edit Females
B. Select ‘Add Females to Your List.'
This will bring you to a screen that gives you a few different options of adding females to your mating group.
1. Adding Females from Herd Inventory
The first section you will see is the option to add females from your most recent herd inventory. Listed is the most recent date the herd inventory was pulled, as well as the number of animals found in the inventory.
Generally, this information is updated each time the herd is appraised which is about twice a year for REAP herds.
Click the ‘Add Females from Herd Inventory’ button if you wish to add your milking herd.
V. Viewing Herd Inventory and Deleting Individuals
Now you have this list of females. In most cases, those will be in Farm ID order or by birthdate. You can sort it by whatever category makes it easy for your needs. If there are individuals that you would like removed from the list, select the white box and a check-mark will appear.
Once you’ve decided on all the animals you would like removed, scroll to the bottom of the page and select ‘Delete Selected Females.’ 
If you so choose, you are also able to delete all of the females from this list by selecting the ‘Delete All Females’ button.
Once finished selecting females to delete, click ‘Add Females to Your List.’ Any animal not deleted will now be in your mating group.
2. Adding Females from a Pre-Existing List
If you wish to use a specific list of females from DairyComp, PCDart, or another program, that information can be added in the second section of the webpage. Simply export the females’ registration numbers from your database and ensure there is one female per line.
Copy the data into the box and select ‘Add Females from List.’
3. Add Females from the Herd that Fall within an Age Range
The next option to add females, this area is a great tool to add heifers that need to be mated within the next few months, or to designate an age group of cows you want mated to a separate group of bulls from the rest.
Simply enter the minimum number of months old you want the animals to be and then the maximum. This will grab every Registered female that falls into the age range in the ownership of the herd and put them into the mating group.
4. Adding Females from other Mating Groups
The final option to add females is to use females from previous mating groups. You can select the drop-down arrow and it will show the options available for you.
If you have not previously created a mating group, you will not be able to select anything.
C. Once you are done adding females, select ‘Back to Mating Group’ which is the upper right corner.
D. Select Add/Edit Bulls
E. Select ‘Add Bulls to Your List.'
Once again, you will be brought to a screen which will give several different options to add bulls.
1. Adding Bulls from Ranked Lists
For this section, the bulls are either ranked on Jersey Performance Index (JPI), Net Merit, Fluid Merit or Cheese Merit, it is up to you. You can opt to use active A.I., foreign bulls and/or genomically tested bulls (G-Code bulls) without milking daughters. We recommend using G-Code bulls and Active A.I. bulls.
In addition, you have to decide how many bulls to allow the program to mate. Often times, we start with a larger number to use the top 50 or 100 initially. Later, we decrease the number of bulls selected.
Once you have decided, click the ‘Add Active A.I. & Foreign Bulls’ button.
V. Viewing Inventory and Deleting Individuals
Once you’ve submitted your list, you’re going to get a large list of bulls. From here, you can edit it and remove bulls that may not work for you. If you only use specific A.I. organizations for breeding on your farm or have another criteria, you can go through and manually select which bulls you would like to remove, similar to the female section.
PRO TIP!
Having to edit the list a lot? Our tool, BullsEye, may be a great resource for you. This program allows you to create a more defined, custom criteria for the bull selection. AND the information can be exported directly to JerseyMate!
2. Adding Bulls from Pre-Existing List
If there are a few bulls you would like to add but they’re not on an Active A.I. list and they have semen available, this option is for you. Simply paste either his registration number, stud code or short name into the box.
This is also the area where you can copy and paste the information you receive from BullsEye when doing your sire selections from that program.
Once you have done so, click the ‘Add Bulls from List’ button.
3. Add Bulls from other Mating Groups
If you would like to use a bull list from a previous mating, similar to the females, just pick which mating you’d like the list of bulls to duplicate from.
Then select ‘Use Bulls from another Mating Group.’
F. Select ‘Add Bulls to Your List.”
On the ‘Current Bull List’ page, you will be able to sort the bulls by the categories listed at the top of the page. If you want to sort by JPI, click that and it will sort it greatest to least. Other customizable sections are the ‘Maximum Usage % of Females’ and ‘Maximum Usage Number of Units’. The system is designed to provide some risk management tools to the user.
These options are customizable on a per bull basis. If you want to make your matings based on the number of units, you can designate number of units in that column. The goal is to provide optimum flexibility for each farm.
Once you are finished adjusting your bull list and usage quantities, hit the ‘Back to Mating Group’ button.
6. Submitting to the Queue
Once you are finished adding females and bulls, you are ready to submit to the queue. Select the ‘Submit to the Queue’ button and you will be prompted to answer a series of questions.
A. Bull List Maximum Size
The default number is ten, but you can put in the number that you desire. Unlimited is an option if you want to explore the different mating possibilities in your herd with a large number of bulls.
B. Receiving Information
The next three options refer to receiving the information. If you want your report printed and mailed to you, please contact our office at the information listed at the bottom of the page. The button on the page is not currently functioning.
If you want to receive either an e-mail or text notification when your mating is completed, enter the necessary information into those areas on the form.
C. Submit Mating Group for Processing
Once you have filled in the information, select ‘Submit Mating Group for Processing.’
7. Receiving the Results
The amount of time it takes to receive the results varies. It depends on the number of cows and herds put in the queue prior to you submitting your requests. If you think your results are taking too much time, please contact our IT department at IT@usjersey.com to receive a status update.
A. Interpreting the Results
Once the matings are complete and sent to you, each female you added to the mating group will be assigned three possible bulls to be mated to. They are in priority order, but it allows for some flexibility in your reproductive program and for you to preference mate if you so choose from a smaller list of sires.
There are four mating options on each female. ‘1st’ and ‘2nd’ are the matings provided from the bull information you inputted into JerseyMateTM. The third is a corrective mating with bar plots of the Parent Average for the trait in line with each mating. Fourth is a comparison mating generated by JerseyMateTM for the individual animal.
8. JerseyMateTM Conclusion
JerseyMateTM was designed to provide a customizable experience for each of our Jersey breeders. With the information available from production and type evaluation data, combined with our thorough animal histories, JerseyMateTM develops the best potential mating based on your desired criteria.
An advantage to being a REAP herd is being able to run as many JerseyMateTM mating groups as you desire. This service and program, along with many others, is included in the fee you pay to be a part of the program. Non-REAP herds will be charged a fee to use the program.
If you have any questions about how to best utilize JerseyMateTM to best suit your needs, contact your AJCA-NAJ area representative or Cari Wolfe, AJCA Director of Research and Genetic Program Development.