MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – Wisconsin made two-and-a-half percent fewer apples last year than in 2013 — but the preliminary harvest was still a lot bigger than in 2012, when bad weather hurt the crop.
The USDA said the Badger State produced 40.7 million pounds of apples last year — about 1 million fewer than the previous year, but still 8 million pounds more than in 2012.
Wisconsin had the nation’s 13th-largest apple crop in 2014, grown on 3,100 acres — the same acreage as the year before, but down from 4,400 acres in 2012.
Nationally, the apple crop totaled 11.2 billion pounds, up from 10.4 billion in 2013. Washington State remains the nation’s runaway leader.
Also, the USDA said Wisconsin made 12 million pounds of tart cherries in 2014. That’s down by about 300,000 pounds from the year before, but it’s still light years ahead of 2012 — when an early warm spell followed by more cold and snow killed cherry vines and limited the harvest to just 1.8 million pounds.
In addition, Wisconsin made 38 million pounds of strawberries last year — about the same as in 2012, but a million fewer than in 2013.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
