BUSINESS MEMO: WHEAT ACREAGE DOWN

Farmers planted less than 43 million acres of winter wheat last fall, the smallest amount since 1972, as producers trying to cope with depressed grain prices continue switching to more lucrative crops, the government said.

Plantings of winter wheat, nationally, are down 1 percent from last season's crop and 8 percent below 1998, according to surveys by the United States Agriculture Department. About three-fourths of the wheat produced in the United States is a winter variety, which is planted in the fall and harvested the following spring.

Winter wheat planting in Missouri is up about two percent, at one million acres.

Wheat plantings started dropping nationally after Congress enacted the 1996 Freedom to Farm law, which ended production controls and let farmers start switching between crops without losing subsidies.