“With the weather in the past few weeks, it's left us guessing.”
While Wisconsin State Cranberry Growers Association Executive Director Grant Holley doesn’t know exactly how this year’s harvest will end up, he is confident Wisconsin will once again be the largest cranberry grower in the U.S. with upwards of 5.3 million barrels produced.
“This will be a better than average year. Odds are we're probably looking, if you're back in primary school, we'll probably have a B on this season,” said Holley.
This summer’s heat and humidity was a bit too much for some of the heat sensitive varieties.
“They're also the ones that typically get harvested early, and we are seeing a little bit more squish than we would like,” said Holley. “Our berries are normally nice and plump and ripe, but we are seeing some squish though.”
Another factor that Holley isn’t sure how will play out yet is the impact of tariffs.
Wisconsin produces half the world’s supply of cranberries and exports them to other parts of the world.
“We're preparing for as many eventualities as we possibly can. You make good decisions now. It's like, is this the year that you go get the new dump truck? Probably not. Is this the the year you go get the new berry pump? Probably not when there's questions. It's not the time to spend money. It's the time to sort of tighten the buckle a little bit and just kind of ride it out and hope that it's not as bad as some folks are saying,” said Holley.
Harvest has already begun in some marshes in the state. Others will start in the next couple of weeks, likely lasting through October.
Holley encourages people to find a tour to see the process.
Locally there are marshes in Eagle River, Three Lakes, and Manitowish Waters that offer tours.
