In a little more than a month, cranberry marshes will be flooded and big booms will sweep up the state fruit.
The U.S. Cranberry Marketing Committee is projecting Wisconsin cranberry growers to harvest about 490 million pounds of cranberries this year.
Tom Lochner thinks that’s a bit of an underestimate. He’s the Executive Director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association.
“That's up a little bit from last year. I'm a little bit more bullish on that, I think we're going to be over 500 million pounds,” he said.
Wisconsin is expected to produce 60% of all cranberries grown in the U.S. this year.
“It's a billion dollar a year industry in Wisconsin. It provides jobs for 1000s of people. And it also provides us with leadership in other areas beyond just growing cranberries, as far as processing them. But also in terms of I think we're at the leading edge of a lot of the science on and research on cranberries and growing up and continuing to grow them in a sustainable manner here in Wisconsin,” said Lochner.
The drought has been a concern for some growers.
There’s been enough to irrigate, but there’s still a need for a lot of water in the weeks to come.
“We want to make sure we have enough water for harvest when it comes in. We've also had to engage in frost protecting the crop. Even this week, we had temperatures on the marsh that were below freezing. So, growers turn on irrigation systems to protect the fruit and the vines from freezing to get those frost events,” said Lochner.
Wisconsin cranberries are grown in the central and northern regions of the state.
Cranberry harvest typically begins in late September and runs until mid-October.
Lochner encourages people to get out a view a harvest operation.
“It's fascinating. I've been doing it for 34-plus years now. That's always fun, always great to get out and during harvest time.”
You can find information about marsh tours on the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association’s website.
