Posted: 11.21.2011

You may know that Wisconsin leads the nation in cranberry production - but do you know how our state growers are changing to conserve water?

Rebecca Harbut, horitculture professor on the UW-Madison, says this year's crop will amount to about 4.3 million barrel of fruit - 60 percent of all production in the U.S.  That crop keeps the state number one in the nation and guarantees our Thanksgiving meal won't be missing the red fruit.  Across the state there's about 18,000 acres of cranberry bogs grown.  What you may not know is that Wisconsin farmers are working hard on water conservation.

Harbut says Wisconsin cranberry growers use a lot of water at three key times in the growing season.  They may irrigate fields in the spring and in the fall to protect the crop from frost damage.  Cranberry growers in Wisconsin also use a lot of water during the harvest to flood the bogs and float the fruit up for the harvest.  Cranberry vines DO NOT stay in water throughout the growing season - bogs are only flooded to raise the ripened berries up off of the vines for quick skimming - then the bogs are drained again and that water's moved on to the next bog ready for harvest.

Harbut says today's growers are using new technology to try and monitor soil moisture needs through the season and precisely add water where and when needed.  She says most cranberry growers also have a specific recycling system in place to move water from one area of the farm to another - all in a contained system - to conserve and protect the environment.

Harbut says she expects that Wisconsin's cranberry production will continue to expand as the world gets a taste of the fruit. 

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