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Cranberry harvest could break record

The nation’s top cranberry producing state could see another record crop.  Scott Schultz raises eight varieties of cranberries on 230 acres near Warrens in west central Wisconsin.  He tells Brownfield, Mother Nature has been good to the crop this year, and the harvest is nearly finished.  Schultz says, “The end is in sight.  Next week, we’ll be finished, and being that we started the week after Labor Day, it’s been a long harvest.  It’s been a good harvest.  I think we’re expecting a record crop all throughout the state.”

Schultz says Wisconsin produces about 60% of America’s cranberries on more than 21-thousand acres of land, which means they need a lot of water.  “For every acre of cranberries that we grow, we need from seven to ten acres of water to support those cranberries.”  The water stored in ponds flows downstream to be used again by neighboring cranberry growers.

Schultz says cranberry producers do things differently based on the type of berry they’re growing and how their berries are marketed.  “We grow for sweet and dried cranberries, cranberry juice, and cranberry sauce.  We’ve got neighbors down the street that grow fresh cranberries, and that’s a completely different operation with the way they do things and the varieties that they grow, but we grow the nicest, reddest cranberries so we get the best product for the sweet and dried cranberries and the juice.”

Schultz is one of many growers who send berries to the farmer-owned Ocean Spray plant in nearby Tomah, Wisconsin.  Most of the berries end up in sauces, juices, food ingredients, and craisins.  He says the Ocean Spray receiving facility is running out of room.

Prices remain low for cranberries.  Schultz is hopeful that additional uses and marketing can improve the demand and bring prices back up.

Schultz says the perennial cranberry plants can last around 60 years when well managed, but they are re-doing two or three of the beds each year to upgrade to newer varieties that yield more berries.  Once harvest is complete, the heavy equipment will be busy until around Thanksgiving.  Once the reconditioned beds are ready, Schultz says they will begin the early winter process of maintaining and storing machinery so it’s ready for the 2017 season.

Scott Schultz talks with Brownfield reporter Larry Lee about raising cranberries and the current harvest.