A rule-based inference system for animal production management

In Scotland, sheep production constitutes a major proportion of agricultural output, and a substantial number of producers lose money as a result of poor management practices. Government-run advisory services offer help to combat ignorance and inefficiency, but the necessary expertise is scarce. This paper describes a system which accepts raw data of relevance to the domain of animal production, together with production rules in the form of arithmetic expressions acquired from an expert. It derives information which is immediately useful in formulating constructive advice, and which is readily available to many users. The design is achieved through a series of logically progressing stages. The first of these is to construct a working prototype of the systems interface, the second to structure the knowledge of the domain, the third to devise a simple inference mechanism, the fourth to add an information-gathering module and the final stage to cloak the system with a user-friendly interface. © 1988.