Montana farmers are expected to plant less wheat than last year according to a statistics report issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agriculture statistician Eric Sommer has the numbers.

"We're showing that our winter wheat seeds are down 100,000 from the 2014 crop and spring wheat is down about 250,000 acres from last year," Sommer said. "Some of it's moisture, some of it's price with the prices being kind of down from a year ago.

Sommer said that the prices aren’t drastically lower, and that the types of grain being planted are evidence that farmers are expecting a dry summer.

"We're entering an El Niño type of weather pattern which kind of leads to some dry weather in Montana," Sommer said. "We haven't had a lot of the spring moisture that we usually get and they need that for spring wheat of course, and I think that has a lot to do with what they're intending."

While wheat is on the decline, prices on legumes are up and Montana farmers are expected to plant more this year.

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