美国国家公共电台 NPR When Robots Milk Cows, Farm Families Taste Freedom

 

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

On a growing number of dairy farms, people don't decide when the cows need to be milked. The cows do. That's because farmers have called in robots to do the milking - day or night. And for some families - the ones that run small dairies - the robots mean freedom. NPR's Dan Charles reports.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE¹: Carol and Bill Shuler and their two sons, Billy and Wyatt, run a dairy farm near the town of Baroda in southwest Michigan. And for decades, family life revolved² around milking 40 cows.

BILL SHULER: At quarter to four every morning, the first thing we did - we would clean the barn out.

BILLY SHULER: We fed the cows. We milked the cows. And then at 3:00 in the afternoon, it all started over again. Feed the cows. Milk the cows.

CAROL SHULER: Milking time is kind of like our meal time. You know, we were more likely to be together during milking time than we were during meal time.

CHARLES: That was Bill, Billy and Carol Shuler. There were no weekends off - no holidays. If there was a big family get-together³ like a wedding, Bill Shuler says, they'd get there late or leave early.

BILL SHULER: If you're a small operation and you can't hire help, you're a virtual slave to your farm.

CHARLES: On top of that, recent years have been really tough for dairy farmers. Milk prices have slumped⁴, as they sometimes do. Farmers are eating into their savings⁵. Some are giving up on dairying. Bill and Carol Shuler wondered if their two sons really would want this life. Their grandmother, Shirley Shuler, really had her doubts.

SHIRLEY SHULER: You couldn't encourage them because you know it isn't easy. You know it isn't easy.

CHARLES: But a couple of years ago, Billy and Wyatt told their parents they did want to be dairy farmers, and the Shulers decided⁶ to make a big investment for the future of the farm and the family.

(SOUNDBITE OF MECHANICAL WHIRRING)

CHARLES: There's a big new barn on the farm now. Inside it, a hundred cows spend their days lounging on sawdust. And every once in a while, one of them decides it's her own personal milking time. She strolls down to one end of the barn where there's a small, trailer-sized building.

(SOUNDBITE OF GATE SLAMMING)

CHARLES: She pushes through a metal gate and walks into that building into a special cow-sized chamber⁷ that holds her in place. A sensor⁸ reads her ID tag, and a robotic arm swings into action, reaching toward her udder.

BILL SHULER: OK. So here we go.

CHARLES: Yep.

BILL SHULER: The first thing it's going to do is sanitize each teat with an iodine⁹ solution. Then it'll go back and put the milkers on individually.

CHARLES: I see a little red light. Is that...

BILL SHULER: Those are the lasers.

CHARLES: That's right - lasers. That's how the robot finds the teats. It takes the machine a couple of tries to attach the milkers. A human would do this much faster. But eventually, it succeeds, and milk flows through hoses into a big storage tank. Bill Shuler's sons are usually here, but they don't have to be - at least not every minute. If something goes wrong, they'll get an alert on their phones.

Robots are milking just a small minority of American cows - maybe 5 percent. But the share is growing. Big dairies are buying them to replace workers, often immigrants. Small farms have been getting them to replace family labor¹⁰.

BILL SHULER: It absolutely changes your lifestyle. It gives you a life.

CHARLES: There's been a lot of talk lately about robots taking people's jobs. Bill Shuler hopes this robot will help his sons stay in the dairy business.

BILL SHULER: If this technology was available 25 or 30 years ago, I'd still have more friends milking cows today. I have a friend - he's a couple years older than I am. I'm sure he would have robots. He'd still be milking cows today. His son would probably be there with him.

CHARLES: In fact, a small family-run dairy farm like this is rare enough these days, Shuler's turning it into a tourist attraction. Hundreds of people visited last year. Kids love the cows, he says. Older people are amazed by the robots. Dan Charles, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 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。

2 revolved   

v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想

参考例句：

• The fan revolved slowly. 电扇缓慢地转动着。
• The wheel revolved on its centre. 轮子绕中心转动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 get-together   

n.(使)聚集；(使)集合

参考例句：

• Well,Miss Huang,we are planning to have a casual get-together.嗯，黄小姐，我们打算大家小聚一番。
• Will you help me prepare for the get- together of the old classmates?你能否帮我为这次老同学聚会做好准备工作？

4 slumped   

大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]

参考例句：

• Sales have slumped this year. 今年销售量锐减。
• The driver was slumped exhausted over the wheel. 司机伏在方向盘上，疲惫得睡着了。

5 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。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

8 sensor   

n.传感器，探测设备，感觉器（官）

参考例句：

• The temperature sensor is enclosed in a protective well.温度传感器密封在保护套管中。
• He plugged the sensor into a outlet.他把传感器插进电源插座。

9 iodine   

n.碘，碘酒

参考例句：

• The doctor painted iodine on the cut.医生在伤口上涂点碘酒。
• Iodine tends to localize in the thyroid.碘容易集于甲状腺。

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。