VOA慢速英语:乳品业的未来：机器人挤奶工（双语）

The Future of Dairy Farming: Robot Milkers

乳品业的未来：机器人挤奶工

This is the Agriculture Report.

这里是美国之音慢速英语农业报道。

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.

未来已经来到距离华盛顿一个小时车程的乳牛场，看那，一个机器人正在挤牛奶。现在正是马里兰州芒特艾里市Woodbourne乳品厂的挤奶时间，奶牛们正排着队轮流等着机器人挤奶。

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.

约翰·芬德里克是这家乳牛场的主人。他通过观看电脑屏幕来检查奶牛们的进程，这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."

“挤奶的门开了，他们进去，然后被挤完奶，门开了，他们再出来。”

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.

机器做了所有的工作，该机器运用激光来找到每一个乳头---也就是奶牛身上出奶的地方。找到乳头后，机器会清理乳头，然后把一根吸奶管连接到乳头上。

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.

该机器还会检测牛奶是否被污染，如果发现问题，就会放弃这部分牛奶。当奶牛的出奶量变小，机器就会停止，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.

挤奶机器人在美国，欧洲和澳大利亚的奶农中很受欢迎，约翰·芬德里克称，机器人改变了奶牛场的生活。

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

“该机器使得我们重获自由，它使得我和我的工人可以真正的去做一些农场上的其他事情。”

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.

大多数牛农一天得给他们的奶牛挤两次奶，大清早一次，深夜一次。无论天气好坏，他们都要给这些奶牛挤奶。但是芬德里克的奶牛不用遵循这样的安排，它们可以呆在地里，直到它们想要被机器人挤奶。它们中的一些奶牛到半夜才被挤奶。

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.

芬德里克先生甚至无需在现场观看他的奶牛被挤奶，他可以通过手机看到全程。他也能够知道每头奶牛何时被挤的奶，产了多少奶。他还能知道是否有奶牛很长一段时间没被挤奶了。

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.

这种机器人挤奶工的价格也不菲，芬德里克先生花费15万美元买的它。但是他指出，花钱雇人去挤奶也很贵。

"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."

“通过这台机器人，在三年之内，我就能付清差额。而且我不用总是随叫随到的去挤奶了，我们都有自己的生活，不需要我们奶牛就能被挤奶---对于我们来说，这机器人买的非常值。”

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.

他还说，这是件好事。“我不喜欢挤奶。”有了这个机器人，他就可以把注意力转向其他事情。他每天可以获得大约475升牛奶，但是他却连牛都不用碰。

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

这就是今天的美国之音慢速英语农业报道，我是卡蒂·韦弗。