VOA标准英语2012--Corn Harvest Comes Early for Midwest Farmers
时间：2019-01-13 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(八月)
Corn Harvest Comes Early for Midwest Farmers
The only thing farmer Bruce Nation sees in his cornfields outside Taylorville, Illinois, is heartache.
“This stuff is depressing here. This is hard to look at for me,” he said.
Most of the ears of corn that managed to grow in his fields are much smaller than normal because of the drought. Smaller corn means less to sell, which cuts into Nation’s bottom line.
“Probably, maybe 30 kernels 1 on that whole thing. This is what we are up against,” he said.
Nation was also up against the risk that comes with planting and growing when the cost for seed and fertilizer are at all time highs.
“You are at the mercy of Mother Nature. Some people ask me why I do not gamble. Why, I gamble every day," he said. "That is just the way it is when you farm.”
As he takes to the fields to harvest - this year about a month ahead of schedule because of the drought - Nation is watching that gamble in real time. Thanks to an Internet connection in his tractor, he keeps a close watch on the rapidly-changing price for his corn and soybeans.
“I watch them every day," Nation said. "I have a consultant 2 who helps me on my marketing 3, he watches it every hour.”
Commodity traders on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade are also keeping close watch over the rapidly changing prices, including GrainAnalyst.com’s Matthew Pierce.
“The drought concerns this year have expanded exponentially as we have approached harvest, and some of the pro-farmer numbers we have seen recently have shown much more damage than was even expected just a month ago,” he said.
Pierce says the outlook for both corn and soybeans gets worse by the day, and has global implications.
“The U.S. exportable surplus is dwindling 4 by the day," he said. "And China, Japan, South Korea, Mexico are going to be most directly affected 5 by that.
“We are at all time highs on both corn and soybeans, and that hurts everything over the long, long haul," Pierce continued. "Everybody is going to feel this effect.”
Everybody, including Nation’s neighbors, will feel it. He says they will see an increase in the price of their groceries in about six months.
But despite all he faces, Bruce Nation will not call this year’s drought a disaster.
“I would not say a disaster. I would say a setback," he said. "It is going to set every body back a little bit. But the farmer has a heck of a human spirit to him, and he is going to go right on plugging. And that is all you can do, keep swinging.”
- These stones contain kernels. 这些核中有仁。
- Resolving kernels and standard errors can also be computed for each block. 还可以计算每个块体的分辨核和标准误差。
- He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
- Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。
- They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
- He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。
- The number of wild animals on the earth is dwindling. 地球上野生动物的数量正日渐减少。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- He is struggling to come to terms with his dwindling authority. 他正努力适应自己权力被削弱这一局面。 来自辞典例句