BILLINGS – A large harvest and high wheat prices added up to a state wheat crop worth a record $1.43 billion last year.
The National Agricultural Statistics Service says Montana famers produced a record 215.3 million bushels of wheat in 2010 at a time when harsh weather killed crops across the globe.
Lola Raska with the Montana Grain Growers Association tells The Billings Gazette that futures wheat prices spiked about seven months ago, and stuck. She says people are surprised the high prices have held.
The cash price for the best quality wheat was $11.39 a bushel in the Billings region on Tuesday, while on Wednesday dark northern spring wheat with 15 percent protein was bringing up to 12.82 a bushel in Portland, Ore.