VOA慢速英語:乳品業(yè)的未來：機(jī)器人擠奶工（雙語）

The Future of Dairy Farming: Robot Milkers

乳品業(yè)的未來：機(jī)器人擠奶工

This is the Agriculture Report.

這里是美國之音慢速英語農(nóng)業(yè)報道。

The future has arrived at a dairy farm about in an hour by car from Washington D.C. A robot is milking cows. It is milking time at Woodbourne Creamery in Mt. Airy, Maryland. The cows are standing in line for a turn at the robot.

未來已經(jīng)來到距離華盛頓一個小時車程的乳牛場，看那，一個機(jī)器人正在擠牛奶?，F(xiàn)在正是馬里蘭州芒特艾里市Woodbourne乳品廠的擠奶時間，奶牛們正排著隊輪流等著機(jī)器人擠奶。

John Fendrick is the owner of the farm. He inspects the progress of the animals by looking at a computer screen. That is all he has to do.

約翰·芬德里克是這家乳牛場的主人。他通過觀看電腦屏幕來檢查奶牛們的進(jìn)程，這就是所有他需要做的。

"The door of the milk opens up, they walk in, they get milked. The door opens up, they walk out."

“擠奶的門開了，他們進(jìn)去，然后被擠完奶，門開了，他們再出來。”

The robot does all the work. It uses a laser to find each teat -- the place on the cow where the milk comes out. The robot then cleans the teat and connects a milking tube to it.

機(jī)器做了所有的工作，該機(jī)器運用激光來找到每一個乳頭---也就是奶牛身上出奶的地方。找到乳頭后，機(jī)器會清理乳頭，然后把一根吸奶管連接到乳頭上。

The robot also tests the milk for possible contamination. If it finds a problem, it rejects the milk. When the amount of milk coming out of the cow slows, the machine knows to stop, and sends the cow on its way.

該機(jī)器還會檢測牛奶是否被污染，如果發(fā)現(xiàn)問題，就會放棄這部分牛奶。當(dāng)奶牛的出奶量變小，機(jī)器就會停止，并把奶牛送走。

Milking robots are becoming popular among dairy farmers in the United States, Europe and Australia. John Fendrick says the robots have changed life on a dairy farm.

擠奶機(jī)器人在美國，歐洲和澳大利亞的奶農(nóng)中很受歡迎，約翰·芬德里克稱，機(jī)器人改變了奶牛場的生活。

"You are giving the freedom back. So it allows me or the people work for me to actually do other things on the farm."

“該機(jī)器使得我們重獲自由，它使得我和我的工人可以真正的去做一些農(nóng)場上的其他事情。”

Most dairy farmers must milk their cows two times a day, early in the morning and late at night. The animals are milked everyday in good weather or bad. But Mr Fendrick's cows do not follow such schedule, they stay in the field until they want to be milked by the robot. Some of them come to be milked in the middle of the night.

大多數(shù)牛農(nóng)一天得給他們的奶牛擠兩次奶，大清早一次，深夜一次。無論天氣好壞，他們都要給這些奶牛擠奶。但是芬德里克的奶牛不用遵循這樣的安排，它們可以呆在地里，直到它們想要被機(jī)器人擠奶。它們中的一些奶牛到半夜才被擠奶。

Mr Fendrick doesn't even need to be there to watch his cows be milked. He can watch from his telephone. He can learn when each cow was milked and how much she produced. He can also learn if a cow has not been milked for a long time.

芬德里克先生甚至無需在現(xiàn)場觀看他的奶牛被擠奶，他可以通過手機(jī)看到全程。他也能夠知道每頭奶牛何時被擠的奶，產(chǎn)了多少奶。他還能知道是否有奶牛很長一段時間沒被擠奶了。

The cow milking robot is not low cost technology. Mr Fendrick paid more than $150,000 for it. But he notes, paying someone to milk the cows is also costly.

這種機(jī)器人擠奶工的價格也不菲，芬德里克先生花費15萬美元買的它。但是他指出，花錢雇人去擠奶也很貴。

"In three years, I will have paid off the difference with this, and I don't have to be the person who's always on call to milk. The fact that we have a life, and our cows are able to function without us -- to us, it's well worth the money."

“通過這臺機(jī)器人，在三年之內(nèi)，我就能付清差額。而且我不用總是隨叫隨到的去擠奶了，我們都有自己的生活，不需要我們奶牛就能被擠奶---對于我們來說，這機(jī)器人買的非常值。”

And he says that is a good thing. "I don't like to milk." With the robot, he can turn his attention to other things. He gets about 475 liters of milk a day, and he never has to touch a cow.

他還說，這是件好事。“我不喜歡擠奶。”有了這個機(jī)器人，他就可以把注意力轉(zhuǎn)向其他事情。他每天可以獲得大約475升牛奶，但是他卻連牛都不用碰。

And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English. I'm Caty Weaver.

這就是今天的美國之音慢速英語農(nóng)業(yè)報道，我是卡蒂·韋弗。