美国国家公共电台 NPR With Water In Short Supply, One California Farmer Grows Feed Indoors

With Water In Short Supply, One California Farmer Grows Feed Indoors 

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The long drought here in California has forced many farmers in the Central Valley to rethink how they use water. One sheep farmer has adopted an unusual method of water conservation. Valley Public Radio's Ezra David Romero reports on how it's working.

EZRA DAVID ROMERO, BYLINE²: On Golden Valley Farm, an hour north of Fresno, Mario Daccarett's employees are milking 500 sheep. This creamy milk is eventually turned into cheese and sold at places like Whole Foods.

MARIO DACCARETT: They tell me that our Golden Ewe cheese is the best for grilled-cheese sandwich ever.

ROMERO: Daccarett gets about 800 pounds of milk a year from each ewe. To make that much milk, it takes a lot of feed, like oats and hay. And to cut the costs of all that feed, Daccarett says he has a secret ingredient that enriches his cheese while at the same time saves a lot of water, that ingredient - sprouted³ barley⁴ grown indoors.

DACCARETT: We plant every day, and we harvest every day. And It takes six days to complete the cycle.

ROMERO: He feeds his sheep one part oats and hay and one part sprouted barley. Growing barley as feed isn't anything new, but Daccarett sprouts⁵ barley seeds inside shipping⁶ containers using hydroponic technology and indoor grow lights. He's using just 2 percent of the water it would take to grow the crop outside.

DACCARETT: I think that's a big advantage. If you don't have a lot of land, you can produce a tremendous amount of feed in a very, very small area with very little amount of water.

ROMERO: Inside each 10-by-20-foot shipping container are five horizontal rows of shallow black trays. Daccarett's nephew, Jose Quinonez, says the growing process is quite simple.

JOSE QUINONEZ: So we just get the tray, just the dump the barley, spread it really good.

ROMERO: After he fills each tray, he pushes them forward until the container is full and closes the door.

QUINONEZ: That's it. It's ready. Just wait seven days, and it will be ready to feed.

ROMERO: Every hour, sprinklers mist the seeds for 20 seconds. That amount of water is just enough to start the germination⁷ process. In a matter of days, these sprouts will stand six inches tall and be ready for the sheep to eat. The farm produces 2,400 pounds of sprouts every day, but not everyone thinks growing indoors is worth it.

DANIEL PUTNAM: The margins⁸ are pretty slim.

ROMERO: That's Daniel Putnam, an agronomy⁹ professor with the University of California, Davis. He says the cost doesn't pencil out.

PUTNAM: And if you really apply a little bit of economics to it and animal nutrition to it, it doesn't quite appear as promising¹⁰ as one might think.

ROMERO: Putnam says these hydroponic containers are expensive, about $100,000 each. But for sheep rancher Mario Daccarett, it's working. He says his first two containers paid for themselves in just over a year.

DACCARETT: The more pressure we have from water limitations or the more pressure to become more efficient ourselves and more sustainable - you're going to see more people doing it.

ROMERO: And when Daccarett's nephew, Jose Quinonez, feeds the sprouts to the sheep, they come running.

QUINONEZ: You can tell they go crazy when they see it. They really like it.

ROMERO: And just like sheep love the sprouts, Daccarett says he loves the financial savings¹¹ from this not-so-widely-used farming practice. He hopes to buy three more shipping containers to grow even more sprouts in the coming year. For NPR News, I'm Ezra David Romero in Fresno.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 sprouted   

v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• We can't use these potatoes; they've all sprouted. 这些土豆儿不能吃了，都出芽了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rice seeds have sprouted. 稻种已经出芽了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 barley   

n.大麦，大麦粒

参考例句：

• They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
• He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。

5 sprouts   

n.新芽，嫩枝( sprout的名词复数 )v.发芽( sprout的第三人称单数 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• The wheat sprouts grew perceptibly after the rain. 下了一场雨，麦苗立刻见长。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The sprouts have pushed up the earth. 嫩芽把土顶起来了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

7 germination   

n.萌芽，发生；萌发；生芽；催芽

参考例句：

• At the onset of germination, the hypocotyl elongates rapidly by cell enlargement. 萌发开始时，下胚轴依靠细胞增大而迅速伸长。 来自辞典例句
• Excessive moisture is unfavourable for soybean germination. 水分过多对于大豆萌发是不利的。 来自辞典例句

8 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

9 agronomy   

n.农业经济学

参考例句：

• The science of agronomy helps farmers obtain larger and better crops.农业经济学帮助农民获得更多更好的农作物。
• Heavy agronomy clique and Si Mi order of believe in nature.重农学派和斯密都信奉自然秩序。

10 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

11 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。