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> TAKE ME DIRECTLY TO THE CRANBERRY TEAM WEBSITE
About the Cranberry Team
The mission of the Cranberry Team is to maintain and enhance the
economic viability of the Massachusetts cranberry industry through
research and extension and to serve the public welfare by supporting
economic development and protection of the environment. The team
is unusual in that all of its labs are based, not at the University
of Massachusetts at Amherst, but at the Cranberry Station in East
Wareham, the heart of the cranberry-growing region of the state.
The East Wareham station ranks as a worldwide leader for research
and outreach on cranberry culture.
The team's primary focus is helping growers respond to the financial
crisis in the cranberry industry. Since 1998, the price of cranberries
has dropped precipitously, leading to current prices well below the
cost of production for most Massachusetts growers. In response to
the below-cost prices, much of which is due to an oversupply of berries,
the Secretary of Agriculture issued a cranberry volume regulation
in 2000 and 2001. Under the regulation, growers needed to find ways
to increase efficiency and to reduce their production to meet their
restricted quotas. The Cranberry Station staff and the Cranberry
Team provided support to growers by developing recommendations for
crop elimination on some bogs and for prioritizing money-saving efficiency
improvements.
During the past decade, Cranberry Team scientists have been investigating
alternative practices that growers can use to control pests while
reducing pesticide use. A study of "late water," a 30-day
spring flood that had been used historically to enhance the keeping
quality of harvested fruit, demonstrated that growers could control
cranberry fruit worm and fruit rot, the most prevalent and costly
insect and disease pests of cranberries in Massachusetts. The flood
reduces the use of pesticide applications by 50%. As a result of
the research, the late flood has been adopted by many of the state's
400 growers and has become an essential tool for growers producing
organic berries.
A more urgent problem for cranberry growers is finding a reduced-risk
alternative for pest management of the cranberry weevil, which has
become resistant to organophosphate pesticides. Under the direction
of team leader Anne Averill, the Cranberry Station Entomology Program
is working with the EPA and the Massachusetts Department of Food
and Agriculture to identify and develop alternative control methods
for this pest.
For more information on the Cranberry Team contact Anne Averill
at (413) 545-1054 or visit the Cranberry
Team website.
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