this paper describes a prototype of a farm level expert (flex) system providing firm-level decision support for cotton farms in central texas. the system was developed on a pyramid 90x computer running the unix operating system. the system integrates a farm and field database with simulation models and expert system to provide advice on key strategic and tactical decisions relating to cotton production throughout the calendar year. clips, the c-language integrated production system developed by nasa, was used as the inference engine. modifications were made to clips to provide a menu-driven user interface and frame-like knowledge representation through dynamic access to c-language structures in the database. a rudimentary model-based reasoning component was added and is being expanded to allow the system to deal with some unforeseen field situations. currently, the program is being ported to an ibm pc/at for delivery to the field. components of the system are being tested in the field. (author abstract) 15 refs