MANDAN (AP) - The North Dakota Wheat Commission is looking for ways to keep money flowing for research.

"The federal grants, the federal earmarks are shrinking a bit," Administrator Neal Fisher told the commission at its meeting this week in Mandan. "The state puts in a couple of million dollars also, and then there are the small contributions of commodity groups like ourselves, that provide about $8 million a year, in round numbers, for wheat research."

Fisher said the commission might redirect some of its checkoff money from trade policy to research. He also hopes the Legislature will help.

"We're hoping the state will value this $7 billion wheat industry - billion with a B as we say - and see fit to invest some of additional dollars in this," Fisher said.

Wheat prices hit around $25 a bushel earlier this year, but have since fallen to about a fourth of that high. County representatives to the Wheat Commission say farmers worry about next year.

"Our costs of production on this '09 crop is going to go up dramatically," said Harlan Klein, who farms near Elgin. "And the concern that I have - and I'm sure a lot of other producers - is, we've got to have this thing to where we as a producer can come out and make some money on this, otherwise we're not going to be here."

"We know costs have gone up," Fisher said. "And now the commodity prices themselves have gone down. Where's the balance going to be in that, and how can we help?"

One good sign recently has been the weather. Farmers see the rain and snow that hit the state as a sign of another strong crop.