After optimistic projections for an increased cranberry crop this year, local growers are scaling back expectations as they complete the harvest.

"I think we all experienced the same thing, a smaller crop but not a bad crop," said John Decas, of Decas Cranberries.

At the August annual meeting of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers, The US Department of Agriculture projected a 7% increase in Massachusetts and a 6% increase nationwide for this year's cranberry harvest.  Estimating 1.95 million barrels in Massachusetts, this would have been the second-largest cranberry harvest in Massachusetts history.

But in late October, Ocean Spray reducing their estimate of the 2010 crop by 500,000 barrels.  Ocean Spray cited the dry, hot summer as "scalding" the crop.

But more problematic for growers, Decas said, was that this year's crop adds to a surplus of cranberries remaining from 2009.

In many cases, this surplus has driven down prices per barrel to below production costs, with some independent handlers reportedly already setting a floor of $10 a barrel.

According to growers, the weather presented huge challenges this year.  A cold and excessively wet spring was followed by a hot, dry summer.  Particularly challenging was three weeks in late August and early September.  With the wet spring, the crop was about two weeks early, so that these August temperatures coincided with the ripening of the berries and many growers experienced scald or rot.

Even the world's largest cranberry grower, A.D. Makepeace Co., which has been diversifying its crop to include hybrid varieties of berries that ripen later in the season, scaled back projections.

Originally hoping that the hybrid varieties with a greater bushel/acre yield would compensate for the reductions in native berries, the hybrids didn't come in as strong as expected, said A.D. Makepeace Director of Marketing Linda Burke.

Nevertheless, the $65 price per barrel set by the Ocean Spray Cooperative makes the economics of the harvest less foreboding.

Also comforting for those concerned about the economics of the crop is that this year's harvest was down in every major cranberry region except New Jersey, according to Jeff LaFleur, executive director of the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers' Association.  Wisconsin, Washington State, Quebec, Pennsylvania, all reported smaller harvests than projected, he said, many of them experienced bigger decreases than Massachusetts.  Cranberry sales are also up.

"Some growers had rot," LaFleur said. "But all in all, given huge challenges, it was a positive [crop]."