Development of an integrated Knowledge-Based System for Management Support on Dairy Farms

¹ Department of Herd Health and Reproduction, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 7, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands and Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA Rotterdam, The Netherlands

A knowledge-based system is an advanced computer program that can solve problems requiring the use of expertise and experience. This feature makes it very suitable for use in dairy farm management. A knowledge-based system contains a knowledge base, an inference engine, and a user interface. In second generation knowledge-based systems, the knowledge base is based upon a model in which declarative knowledge is stored. One of the possibilities for a model is a causal model. Causal models and other knowledge representation schemes can be used in an integrated knowledge-based system for management support on dairy farms. Such a knowledge-based system can contain three modules: 1) a health module, which must, for example, be able to detect and diagnose on-line (subclinical) diseases, such as mastitis, in an early stage; 2) a production module, which must help to reduce and prevent losses from diseases and managerial deficiencies; and 3) a financial module, which must be able to detect suboptimal financial results and search for the reasons causing those results. Tools and methods that can be used to build such a large integral knowledge-based system are discussed.

Key Words: knowledge-based systems • dairy farm management • computers

Submitted on April 18, 1991
Accepted on June 14, 1991