North Dakota's state-owned flour mill won't buy Canadian wheat this year, because a supply problem has eased, the mill's general manager says.

The state Industrial Commission, which is the mill's board of directors, voted Monday to rescind its permission that the mill be allowed to buy Canadian hard red spring wheat and durum. The wheat varieties are used to make baked goods and pasta.

Gov. John Hoeven, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson make up the commission. The mill, which began making flour in 1922, has never used Canadian grain for its milling.

Jim Diepolder, a Willow City farmer who is president of the U.S. Durum Growers Association, praised the move. Diepolder and other wheat industry spokesmen had protested the commission's earlier Feb. 4 decision to allow Canadian wheat purchases.

"It just goes to show people make a difference in this state," Diepolder said Monday. "Dakota Maid means Dakota made." The Mill and Elevator's flour is sold under the Dakota Maid brand.

The Durum Growers Association is among a number of North Dakota and U.S. wheat organizations that have protested Canadian wheat exports to the United States. They contend Canadian wheat production is unfairly subsidized, an argument that Canadian wheat interests deny.

Vance Taylor, the mill's general manager, was granted permission to buy Canadian wheat because of fears that U.S. stocks would run out before newly harvested wheat comes on the market in late summer.

Taylor said Monday that since the commission's vote to allow Canadian wheat purchases, North Dakota farmers and grain elevators had come forward with offers to sell their own stocks.

The mill now has 7 million bushels of wheat in storage or purchased for delivery, and it needs 8 million bushels to meet its milling needs by early August, Taylor said.

"I am confident that it will not be necessary to source non-domestic wheat or durum to supply our customers," Taylor said in a letter to the Industrial Commission.