Wheat sneaks back onto small farms

WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) -- High prices for wheat have caught the attention of New England farmers with relatively small plots of land, agricultural experts said.

In states where wheat has not been a major player in the agricultural scene for decades, farmers are looking for niche markets, such as organic bakeries, to supply buyers, the Christian Science Monitor reported Friday.

"It's nice to finally get a fair return for what you're doing," Jack Lazor, a Vermont dairy farmer said.

Lazor, who grows organic wheat, doubled his wheat planting to 30 acres this year.

Wheat prices hit a record $24 per bushel in February, prompting a boost of 11 percent in the country's wheat acreage to 63.8 million acres and the 6.6 million new acres planted helped drop prices down to earth.

Nevertheless, "there had been a shift away from wheat in the long term," Jim MacDonald, a U.S. Department of Agriculture productivity specialist told the paper. "But with the prices, I think a lot more people have turned that around in the last couple of years."