新疆是全国主要的棉花种植区，也是农业机械化水平最高的地区。多年来，新疆生产建设兵团一直把自主研发和生产机械化采棉机作为重点。目前，农业机械工作者正为新疆及其他地区的棉农生产自主研发的收割机。

Xinjiang is the main cotton-growing region with the highest level of agricultural mechanization in the country. The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps has for many years prioritized the independent development and production of mechanized cotton pickers. Today, agricultural machinery workers are producing independently-developed harvesters for cotton farmers in Xinjiang and beyond.

96年97年，兵团就决定要发展机采棉。

In 1996 and 1997, the Corps decided to focus on developing machine-harvested cotton.

劳动力越来越紧张，兵团这么大的面积一千多万亩地，压力越来越大。

With labor becoming more scarce and over 650,000 hectares to manage,the pressure was mounting.

随着兵团決定发展机采棉起，从品种到栽培方式，技术等一直都在不断革新，为机采棉做技术配套。然而，发展机采棉最重要的的是要过了研制采棉机这一关。

While innovations in varieties, cultivation methods and technical support were underpinning progress,the critical challenge was to create a reliable cotton harvester.

首套采棉机开始是引进。曾经机采棉在发展这个二三十年，特别是前十年很艰难的，采棉机机身庞大，又要在松软的土地上行走，同时还要采摘精选、收集、打包。

We started out, using imported machines.We spent 20, 30 years developing a harvester.It was tough, especially the first decade.A cotton harvester not only picks the cotton,but also sorts and sales it.

其关键的采棉头制造技术，自动对行控制技术，采棉机自动话控制系统等,都有一定的技术壁垒，所以采棉机也被称为“农业机械之王”。

It's a large, sophisticated piece of equipment,and producing the key components，invovles overcoming significant technical challenges.That’s why these machines are popularly known as the “King of Agricultural Machinery”.

大家都说它是农业机械之王。它可以24小时不间断作业，连续工作30天。对可靠性、稳定性的要求是非常高的。我们一个六行打包机，一共有3500种零件，大概有4万件零件组成。

That's what everyone calls them.They can operate continuously for 24 hours,for up to 30 days straight. This demands extreme reliability and stability.Take one of our six-ring balers，for example；it has 3500 different parts，comprising some 40000 components.

杨建宁称，农民最看重的其实就是我们的可靠性、稳定性、它的工作效率。我们目前一台机器，可以每天采摘500亩左右的棉田。目前我们把这个采头、打包、行走这个系统优化之后,它的可靠性、稳定性会进一步提高。

Yang Jianning said that what for farmers, reliability, stability and efficiency are the priority. Currently，one machine can harvest around 33 hectares of cotton in a day. Having optimized the picking, baling and mobility systems, we’ve made refinements.

棉农介绍，捡棉花花费人工采的都是一公斤两块,机子采一亩地200元。一亩地如果说是400公斤的产量，就一亩地相当于800的收花费。是不是中间有600块钱的差距。无形中打个比方，他有100亩地，一亩地600元，十亩地6000元,一百亩地60000元，节省了他的开支了。

Cotton farmers explain that manually picking cotton costs two yuan per kilogram, while machine harvesting charges 200 yuan per mu. If a mu yields 400 kilograms, the harvesting cost per mu amounts to 800 yuan. This represents a difference of 600 yuan. To illustrate: if he has about 6.7 hectares of land, saving 9,000 yuan per hectare means approximately 60,000 yuan in total savings. This directly reduces his operational costs.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               （根据CGTN报道整理）