TORONTO (Bloomberg) Canadian wheat farmers harvested less of the grain in 2010 than last year after wet weather throughout the growing season and early frost on the prairies curbed yields, the government said.

Production dropped 14 percent to 23.2 million metric tons from 2009, Statistics Canada said yesterday in a report based on a survey of 27,600 farmers. The estimate was 4.3 percent higher than the agency’s September forecast of 22.2 million tons. Canada produced 17.5 million tons of spring wheat, 3.02 million of durum and 2.66 million of winter wheat this year.

Floods cost Canadian farmers C$1.5 billion ($1.5 billion) this year, Bank of Montreal said on December 1, lowering its loss estimate from C$3 billion after a jump in grain prices following severe drought in Russia and Eastern Europe. Production losses may have cut economic growth in Saskatchewan, Canada’s biggest wheat-growing province, by 3 percentage points, BMO said.

“Farmers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan reported problems with poor grain quality, the result of a slow and wet initial harvest and early frost damage,” Statistics Canada said in the report. “Yields for wheat and canola were lower.”

Wheat futures for March delivery jumped 30.5 cents, or 4.1 percent, to settle at $7.79 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. The most-active contract has gained 62 percent since the end of June because of global-output declines.