Cranberries are native to Wisconsin, which means not only can the plants survive the winters, they need the cold temperatures.
“Our warm winter made things really rough on our growers,” said Grant Holley, the Executive Director of the Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association.
The lack of long cold snaps meant there wasn’t a strong layer of ice on top of cranberries. Then, this spring was hit and miss for growers trying to protect crops from hailstorms.
“We had areas that just got mulched by large pieces of hail. We were fighting things like that, and our farmers did, they fought tooth and nail,” said Holley. “They were out on frost watches many more nights this year than they have ever been before. They have used every scrap of knowledge that they have in over 100 years of cranberry production.”
Because of all that, Holley actually expected cranberry production to be down a bit more than what’s currently being projected.
According to the USDA National Agriculture Statistic Services crop production report Wisconsin’s cranberry growers are expecting a 4.9-million-barrel crop this year.
That’s down about half a million barrels from last year, but it’s still more than 60% of the cranberries produced in the U.S.
“It isn't just us. Other folks are showing up as a little bit lighter of a year as well. And in almost every case, weather seems to be the major cause,” said Holley.
Holley stresses people shouldn’t take this year away as a negative.
“We can't always fight nature and win. But when it comes to this past year, our farmers stood tall. They did what needed to be able to be done, and did still pull out an incredible crop. It should be a year that they should be very proud of,” said Holley.
Cranberry production generates one billion dollars in state economic impact.
About five percent of this year’s crop will be sold as fresh fruit. The remaining cranberries will be frozen and stored for longer-term sales as frozen berries, dried cranberries, juices, sauces and more.
“Once you start looking at the chemistry of these things, they really should be a great addition to anybody's diet with, I mean, very low pesticides and incredibly high on their nutritional yield compared to so many of the other fruits that are out there, and the fact that they're made in Wisconsin are great,” said Holley.
Harvest typically begins in late September and runs through mid-October.
