Wheat production down in Montana due to wet spring

BILLINGS (AP) — Montana wheat farmers planted 600,000 fewer acres this spring than initially predicted, federal officials say.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture in a report released Thursday said the state's wheat farmers are now expected to produce about 179.7 million bushels of wheat. That's about 27 million fewer bushels than predicted in last month's forecast, and about 35.7 million fewer bushels than the state produced last year.

The Billings Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/rrr5iT) that heavy rains last spring turned fields to mud causing machinery to get stuck, limiting access to th...