X-BREED - A MULTIPLE-DOMAIN KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEM INTEGRATED THROUGHA BLACKBOARD ARCHITECTURE

This paper presents details of a knowledge based system (KBS) 'X-Breed ' that was built to help Livestock Advisory Officers deliver expert ad vice on crossbreeding beef cattle to clients in temperate and subtropi cal Australia. The KBS is made up of six knowledge sources. Of these, five knowledge sources represent the knowledge of a well bounded sub-d omain relevant to crossbreeding beef cattle (e.g. selecting a crossbre eding system, selecting a terminal sire, selecting first cross females for breeding) and the sixth knowledge source represents the pasture q uality domain. The knowledge sources are integrated into an advisory s ystem through a blackboard architecture. Problems pertaining to reason ing about the timing of events concerning livestock relative to events concerning pasture development are addressed in the context of the pa sture quality knowledge source. Case studies are presented.