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養乳牛的人，每天最辛苦的就是早晚趕牛、擠奶，幾乎沒有休假。但在澳洲塔斯馬尼亞州（Tasmania），有一對酪農夫婦現在可以坐在咖啡店裡喝咖啡，讓牛自己去擠奶。澳洲廣播公司（ABC）報導，西蒙・巴德考克（Simon Badcock）和太太桑妮亞（Sonia Badcock）的牧場，是全澳洲第一個同時使用虛擬圍欄項圈和機器人擠奶機的牧場。
EN For dairy farmers, the hardest daily jobs are moving cows and milking them every morning and evening, so they almost never get a day off. But in Tasmania, Australia, one farming couple can now sit in a café and drink coffee while the cows go to be milked by themselves. According to ABC, Simon and Sonia Badcock’s farm is the first in Australia to use both virtual fence collars and robot milking machines.
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圖片來源：ABC News（Australia）
他們的牧場位在塔斯馬尼亞偏遠的西北海岸，這套系統已經用了兩年。
EN Their farm is on the remote northwest coast of Tasmania, and they have used the system for two years.
▶ 聽英文朗讀
手機畫圍欄，牛就自己走過去
西蒙只要打開手機上的應用程式，設定幾道看不見的「虛擬圍欄」，就能引導牛群一路走到擠奶棚。牛脖子上戴著有 GPS 的電子項圈，會追蹤每頭牛的位置和健康，再用一套被稱為「牛演算法」（cow-gorithm）的 AI 系統，透過震動、聲音和牛群行為來引導牠們；如果牛不理會，才會發出低能量的電脈衝。
EN Simon just opens an app on his phone and sets a few invisible “virtual fences” to guide the herd to the milking shed. Each cow wears an electronic collar with GPS that tracks its location and health. An AI system called the “cow-gorithm” guides the cows with vibrations, sounds, and herd behavior. Only if a cow ignores these signals does the collar give a low-energy electric pulse.
▶ 聽英文朗讀
牛到了牛舍，機器人擠奶機就會自動接上開始擠奶。機器人會讀牛的耳標認出是哪一頭，如果距離上次擠奶時間太短，就讓牠吃完飼料直接離開。桑妮亞說：「牛知道進機器人有穀物吃，出來有新鮮的草吃。」
EN When a cow reaches the shed, a robot milking machine connects automatically and starts milking. The robot reads the cow’s ear tag to know which cow it is. If the cow was milked too recently, it just lets her finish her feed and leave. Sonia said, “The cows know they get grain in the robot and fresh grass when they come out.”
▶ 聽英文朗讀
澳洲 ABC 新聞頻道也拍下了這座 AI 牧場的日常：
影片來源：ABC News (Australia)／YouTube
※ 若影片沒有中文字幕，可點播放器右下角的齒輪 → 字幕 → 自動翻譯 → 中文（繁體）。
農夫有時間了，但研究者也提醒取捨
西蒙說，現在他只要注意狀況、巡巡牛群、清洗機器，「不然我們可能根本不用在現場」。只有機器人或項圈發出緊急警報時，夫妻倆才需要趕過去。因為每台機器人要負責將近 100 頭牛，偶爾晚上也得去處理，「大概一週一次」。他說：「你可以把牧場其他部分照顧得更好，也可以休假。」
EN Simon said that now he only needs to check on things, walk around the herd, and clean the machines. “Otherwise, we may not even need to be on site.” The couple only rushes over when a robot or collar sends an emergency alert. Because each robot serves nearly 100 cows, they sometimes have to go at night, “about once a week.” He said, “You can take better care of the rest of the farm, and you can take holidays.”
▶ 聽英文朗讀
塔斯馬尼亞農業研究所的研究員梅根・維登（Megan Verdon）認為虛擬圍欄改變了酪農業的人力配置，但也提醒「任何系統都有取捨」：這種做法是成群把牛帶來，牛並不是自己選擇何時擠奶，對動物的影響還需要研究。目前這款項圈在澳洲除了西澳以外的各州都已獲准使用。
EN Megan Verdon, a researcher at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, believes virtual fencing has changed how dairy farms use workers. But she also warned that “every system has trade-offs.” The cows are brought in as a group, so they do not choose when to be milked, and the effect on animals still needs study. The collars are now approved in every Australian state except Western Australia.
▶ 聽英文朗讀
維登也說，這種系統或許能減輕酪農的負擔，畢竟很多酪農每天都要工作超過 12 個小時。
EN Verdon also said this kind of system may ease the load on dairy farmers, since many of them work more than 12 hours a day.
▶ 聽英文朗讀
精選單字
dairy /ˈdɛri/ (adj.) 乳製品的；酪農的
例：Dairy farmers milk their cows every day.
herd /hɝːd/ (n.) （牛）群
例：The app guides the herd to the shed.
virtual /ˈvɝːtʃuəl/ (adj.) 虛擬的
例：Simon sets virtual fences on his phone.
collar /ˈkɑːlɚ/ (n.) 項圈
例：Each cow wears a collar with GPS.
track /træk/ (v.) 追蹤
例：The collar tracks each cow’s location.
vibration /vaɪˈbreɪʃn/ (n.) 震動
例：The AI guides cows with vibrations and sounds.
ignore /ɪɡˈnɔːr/ (v.) 忽視；不理會
例：The pulse only comes if a cow ignores the signals.
automatically /ˌɔːtəˈmætɪkli/ (adv.) 自動地
例：The robot connects automatically.
remote /rɪˈmoʊt/ (adj.) 偏遠的
例：The farm is on a remote coast.
emergency /ɪˈmɝːdʒənsi/ (n.) 緊急情況
例：They go only when there is an emergency alert.
trade-off /ˈtreɪd ɔːf/ (n.) 取捨；權衡
例：Every system has trade-offs.
approve /əˈpruːv/ (v.) 批准
例：The collars are approved in most states.
資料來源：ABC News（Australia）
