The cranberry is a little, red, tart fruit with a big punch, and Wisconsin produces more of this power-packed berry than any other state in the U.S. The timing of the harvest depends on the berry. Right now, harvesting berries as fresh fruit is the priority.
Tom Lochner, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Cranberry Growers Association shares more on the upcoming harvest and outlook for growers.
Things are on tack for this year’s harvest. Cranberry growers are getting harvest equipment ready and waiting for the color to come out of the fruit and then harvest will get underway.
“There are new challenges every growing season; most growers dealt with either too much or too little rain,” says Lochner. “Overall I think it has been a pretty good growing season in terms of weather and about 85% of the crop is due to what mother nature gives us.”
Pest season is winding up as it is more of a concern in the spring and summer. Growers are looking at controlling weeds in the beds and monitoring pests by using integrated pest management throughout the growing season. However, the pest population has been down some compared to past years.
Lochner adds, “Like the rest of agriculture we are constantly looking at new technologies for growing crops and adapting technology from other sectors in agriculture to apply to cranberries.”
Growers are using gps, moving towards more precision agriculture, changing irrigation techniques and overall management strategies, and utilizing different technologies for how they treat the fruit after harvesting.
Cranberry growers are getting hit hard by fuel and energy prices. They rely on either diesel or electric pumps for irrigation and frost protection. Along with the price of fertilizer, much of what they use on their farm has gone up in cost.
Despite these cost setbacks, the yield projection is looking to be higher than last year. Last year Wisconsin cranberry growers had a short crop and were in the 4 billion barrel range. A typical Wisconsin crop is 5-5.5 million barrels. The predicted yield for this year will fall between the typical year crop.
There are about 15-20 different varieties of cranberries being grown in Wisconsin, each with unique traits growers are looking for. These varieties help growers to be more productive in terms of per acre yield as they allow them to have more control over fruit size and yield, quality, and timing of when the fruit ripens so growers can stagger their harvest.
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