The Canadian Wheat Board is cutting hundreds of jobs as its monopoly comes to an end.

The board says the number of employees will be down to 288 by the end of the month and will drop to about 100 by the end of the year.

Board spokeswoman Maureen Fitzhenry says last year there were 430 people on the payroll, mainly in Winnipeg.

Since the 1940s, western wheat and barley farmers had no choice but to sell through the board.

The federal government passed a law last year to strip the board of its monopoly and open the market as of this summer.

Edited by News Talk Radio staff with files from Canadian Press