Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapid Support, probably brought you back pocket septic for
this september 22nd, 2025.
Have your host James here, we're joined right now by our friend Grant Holley, executive
director of the Cranberry Growers Association.
Grant, good to see you, good to have you in studio, how you been.
Hello world, and I'm happy to be here.
We've been doing pretty good.
We're about halfway into harvest currently and just chugging it out.
Grant, we got some events.
I want to touch on here in a moment, but let's start right there, especially for people
that may not know that much about cranberry, cranberry growing and some of those things.
This is really, you know, it's game day for a lot of our growers out there right now.
This is harvest time.
This is the key time.
It is, and we're a little bit earlier this year than we have been in years past.
The weather, I mean, welcome to agriculture, it's, you have always got to pay attention
to the weather and the climate and all that kind of fun stuff.
The weather has caused us to be able to start a little bit earlier this year on some of
our early varieties.
We are paying attention to things to be able to see how late we go in the year as well.
The nice thing about cranberries is they're pretty darn hardy, so we can leave them on the
vines for a while because we're waiting for some of those chilly nights, so we're waiting
for some of that cool weather because that will really help to get the color of the cranberry.
That nice, pretty red, that will really start to deepen a little bit cooler that we get.
So we kind of keep our fingers crossed and really our biggest deadline is hunting season
because we lose all of our help when hunting season comes in.
So we try to be done by then, but we can sort of stick it out for a little while.
When it comes to that grant and the harvest time this year and everything, what is the key
thing that growers look at in the off season, if you will, in the time building up to this
that can be really key to that, getting that color you're talking about in some of those
things?
Boy, you just asked a question that should probably go to Las Vegas more than anything
else.
When you're on that crats table and you're like, do I roll the hard for or what am I going
to go for here?
Because so much of it is, so there are so many variables that are sort of in play, it
is almost impossible to say anything with a surety.
The only thing that we know for sure is that we only get paid for the berries that get
accepted at the handlers and we don't count them until that happens.
I think there's a Kenny Rogers song about that somewhere along the line.
But we do pay attention to the climate and the weather quite a bit.
So if we get a wet year, which we have had this year and then some, we do try to mitigate
that.
The reason is the cranberries and wet, they sort of go together and we, we can help because
these are basically pseudo wetlands that we're dealing with.
So we can sort of deal with the wet with those types of pieces.
What we are starting to watch is what happens when we have long periods of heat or long periods
of that warm, humid weather because that is fairly new.
We have cool, Wisconsin is dealt with cold for the longest time, wet, we dealt with wet,
wind, we deal with wind, hail, nobody likes it, but we know how to be able to deal with
it.
It's that heat though that we don't have the 150 years of history to tell us what to do.
So we are paying very close attention to that.
So again, this year, because we've had some of that heat and humidity, what we had to
do is we have backed up harvest this year earlier than we've done in recent history because
we do have some of our early varieties that if we didn't get them off the vine because
of the heat and they are heat sensitive, they would start to rot.
So we have to get those suckers off and we have to get them to the processing plant.
That's certainly key for a lot of reasons when it comes to our tables and the food that
we love and how much we enjoy these and everything.
But then there's the obvious economic impact this has and we're talking about one of the
bigger impacts to our state is cranberries and in fact, if I'm seeing this right 2025,
this harvest is going to be 5.3 million barrels and continue to put Wisconsin in that number
one spot.
Oh, yeah.
We're not losing that number one spot.
We will go kick it and scream it before that actually happens.
But yeah, we're looking at 5.3 million barrels this year that's a little bit higher than
our average.
Our average is at about 5 million barrels.
I feel bad because some folks will use a different measure and stick to use a southern terminology.
But if you're using the measure and stick off of last year, that was 6 million barrels.
But we have to realize that was just shy of the all time record.
The weather, I mean, it was just we found out what happens when everything goes perfect
and that's what it looks like.
You can't expect that every year.
Mother nature isn't that nice to us but so far so good this year we are looking to come
in probably just above average.
But again, we don't count them until they're they're accepted at the station.
Sure.
Well, perfect timing by Mother Nature in our ag industry and all these great growers out
there because we've got crann fest and we've got a couple of other events.
One of the touch on just mentioning crann fest quickly here in a big shot at everybody
involved with that.
Yeah, we got Warren's and that big festival is going to be coming up.
Which you have everything that you can possibly imagine.
I go for the food.
I know that I do because it's I leave 50 pounds heavier with a shopping bag full at the
same time.
But there are crafts.
There's cranberries galore.
You can do some free tours that are out there.
All kinds of information.
There's some new cranberry recipes that are being done.
You got to try the pork chop sandwich over at the Lions Club.
I feel like I'm an award ceremony because I'm going to forget somebody.
But they do so much that it'd be so easy to just not be able to see everything.
You got to go.
I'm with you on the food, but not knowing as much about the industry like you.
I love learning about this industry too.
I love finding out more and more about it.
One of my earlier memories have here in Wisconsin is being on a marsh and really getting
the opportunity to understand the differences of that in a dairy farm or a meat farm or
some of these things and being able to separate those a little bit more for a city boy.
It opened up a whole new world of interest to me and a whole bunch of different things
that I found really cool about not only cranberries, but just growing in our ag industry in general.
Some of that, to me, is interesting as well because of some of what you've shared with
us today about the different factors that can play into these things, how much farmers
share of information and some of that.
Some of that leads into the research around table that's going to be going on.
I want to talk a little bit about that, Michael, this research round table that's coming up.
Yeah, we got a research round table coming up in November and we invite everybody in.
All the growers that we usually get a large group coming in, but this is sort of in cooperation
with UW.
It's in cooperation with UW Extension.
It's in cooperation with USDA, so everybody that comes out and does research on cranberries.
This is a nice two way street for us to be able to communicate directly to the researchers
as well as the researchers be able to communicate back with us.
It's that level of communication that helps them to sort of plan their research agendas
better, but also for us to do the translational science piece of it and take what they do
and get it directly into the marshes.
One of the reasons why Wisconsin is just so bloody strong when it comes to cranberries
is this research relationship.
We are trying to get ahead of issues before there ever issues in those partnerships down
there in Madison.
It's they're the ones that really help us to move forward.
When I've came to first doing this job, I love to learn and I don't care what the topic
is.
If it has less and less to do with things, I normally learn about the better because I'm
learning about something completely new.
With this job in particular, anything involving agriculture was pretty much in that area.
But for me, I have found that one of the things that I think I come back to the most
that I enjoy is how much the ag industry, whether we're, again, talking about dairy farms
or cranberry growers or any of these things, and the old school sharing of information and
how key that is to this and how far that brings our industries in this state in particular
and it's nothing against any other state.
I just, I've done my homework on this one and when it comes to that, I will say that
I don't see this happen as much in other states.
I think that it does and I'm not saying it doesn't, but not like it does here where
it's almost like a game of the old tin can and every farmer has what and they're just
sharing this information and how much stronger our industries are because of that information
being shared.
You are so spot on.
I mean, I can't even begin to give you the number of stories where somebody picks up
that tin can and they're just calling the person right down the line.
They're warning them.
Hale is on the way.
They're letting them know, hey, we're seeing this inside of our fields this year.
Are you?
The communication is unbelievable.
I do have a background in ag, but I got to admit that when I came to Wisconsin and I
started working with these cranberry folks, I've seen nothing like this in my entire history.
I mean, you always get farmers that help each other because that's just what ag does.
But Wisconsin goes so far and above anything that I've ever seen before and then even
cranberries, even above and beyond that.
I mean, within Wisconsin, you got the farm bureau.
You got the ag coalitions and everybody.
I mean, the cow people talk to the cheese people, the cheese people talk to the cranberry
people, cranberry talk to the ginseng people and we all have a good time out of it and
you got to see the lunches there because all I can all man out of this world.
But even within the cranberry community, these guys are always talking to each other.
They're always sharing somebody's, some piece of equipment broke down and just happened
last week and you would sit back and think that will their neighbors going to be like,
whoa, that means they'll take more of my berries.
No, they're putting their piece of equipment on top of a truck.
They're going next door to their neighbor and they're helping out because you know what?
That's just what they do.
I went on our morning show.
I always like to wrap up a good story of the day.
Anytime I'm ever looking for one of scrambling for one, I can just look at the ag industry
and there's billions of good stories around there to just pull from it.
It's a really good point that you bring up and I think it's sort of refreshing for people
that we reminded of that sometimes and that exists and that can be a thing and that is a thing.
If you're looking for the good in this world, go find a Wisconsin farmer.
I mean, I got to tell you that right now.
I needed that in my life.
When I came on, we had all just come off of the plague and COVID and you needed some
happy in your life and I found it right here and you're right.
You can't walk off of a cranberry marsh especially inside of Wisconsin and just not feel
better about the world.
Well, Seth, appreciate that.
To that point, while there are some great events coming up and there's even more coming up in
January and everything, we'll be talking about on our shows and mentioning and maybe drag a
grant back in here to talk to us and I'll call them by grant and not Michael like I have done
twice already.
I think today I just interviewed a Michael.
I'm sorry, I answered anything.
I got references on that.
You're a team player, man.
You just keep rolling.
I appreciate that.
You mentioned something in our pregame a little bit that I wanted to make sure to hit
home and all these events are great but there are tours going on.
A lot of our local cranberry marshes, wherever you happen to be listening to us
and everyone is unique.
There are no reruns with these.
If you haven't done it in a while or you've never done it,
encourage you to find out more and reach out to those marshes and
see if you can take a tour.
Absolutely, it's all you have to do is just Google, Wisconsin and cranberries and you'll get to
our site and our site has a tab on it for a number of the marshes that you can you typically need
to call ahead.
You can sort of reserve it and get on a marsh tour.
You can go to Cranfest.
They're going to be running marsh tours the entire weekend.
Even just Google marsh tours and you're going to be able to find somebody.
The only thing that I ask folks is that if you're up and out on a Saturday or a Sunday
and you're driving down the cranberry highway, please just don't pull off to the side and
go walking into somebody's marsh.
Those suckers, they can be a little bit dangerous if you don't know what you're going for.
So make sure that you do something from one of the approved tours and just stay safe out there.
Yeah, and Grant, thank you so much for the time.
You're going to have to come back real soon, Maddo, especially as these events next year
coming up and everything.
Love to have you on, talk about things and certainly we'd love to talk about how the
harvest went as a whole and everything once we get kind of to the end of this.
Thank you so much for the time.
We can't wait to see how it goes either.
And as Grant was telling you, if you want to find out more about Wisconsin State
Grandbury Growers Association, just throw that into your search bar,
Wisconsin State Grandbury Growers Association.
Not only will you find their website, whiskran.org,
but find them on social media, subscribe to their pages and share their posts on your pages.
You just never know who might see it otherwise.
Grant, thanks again for the time.
Thank you for having me.
And thank you, everybody, for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.
