[ti:The Future of Dairy Farming Robot Milkers] [ar:Caty Weaver] [al:Agriculture Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the Agriculture Report. [00:02.61]The future has arrived at a dairy farm [00:13.83]about in an hour by car from Washington D.C. [00:17.72]A robot is milking cows. [00:20.91]It is milking time at Woodbourne Creamery in Mt. Airy, Maryland. [00:28.83]The cows are standing in line for a turn at the robot. [00:35.01]John Fendrick is the owner of the farm. [00:38.64]He inspects the progress of the animals [00:42.19]by looking at a computer screen. That is all he has to do. [00:47.32]"The door of the milk opens up, they walk in, [00:50.87]they get milked. The door opens up, they walk out." [00:53.01]The robot does all the work. [00:55.50]It uses a laser to find each teat -- [00:59.80]the place on the cow where the milk comes out. [01:02.90]The robot then cleans the teat and connects a milking tube to it. [01:09.02]The robot also tests the milk for possible contamination. [01:14.76]If it finds a problem, it rejects the milk. [01:18.84]When the amount of milk coming out of the cow slows, [01:24.13]the machine knows to stop, and sends the cow on its way. [01:29.32]Milking robots are becoming popular [01:32.86]among dairy farmers in the United States, [01:35.55]Europe and Australia. [01:38.26]John Fendrick says the robots have changed life on a dairy farm. [01:43.99]"You are giving the freedom back. [01:46.45]So it allows me or the people work for me [01:49.00]to actually do other things on the farm." [01:51.26]Most dairy farmers must milk their cows two times a day, [01:56.28]early in the morning and late at night. [01:59.78]The animals are milked everyday in good weather or bad. [02:05.35]But Mr Fendrick's cows do not follow such schedule, [02:10.18]they stay in the field until they want to be milked by the robot. [02:15.37]Some of them come to be milked in the middle of the night. [02:19.26]Mr Fendrick doesn't even need to be there [02:23.41]to watch his cows be milked. [02:25.45]He can watch from his telephone. [02:27.99]He can learn when each cow was milked [02:31.48]and how much she produced. [02:33.62]He can also learn if a cow has not been milked for a long time. [02:38.76]The cow milking robot is not low cost technology. [02:43.14]Mr Fendrick paid more than $150,000 for it. [02:48.58]But he notes, paying someone to milk the cows is also costly. [02:54.86]"In three years, [02:56.23]I will have paid off the difference with this, [02:58.72]and I don't have to be the person who's always on call to milk. [03:02.61]The fact that we have a life, [03:04.96]and our cows are able to function without us -- to us, [03:08.86]it's well worth the money." [03:11.74]And he says that is a good thing. [03:14.34]"I don't like to milk." [03:15.77]With the robot, he can turn his attention to other things. [03:20.56]He gets about 475 liters of milk a day, [03:26.05]and he never has to touch a cow. [03:29.10]And that's the Agriculture Report from VOA Learning English. [03:34.59]For more agriculture stories, [03:37.14]go to our website 51voa.com. I'm Caty Weaver.