Farmers have offered to remove nearly 26 million acres from production and other uses in the government’s multibilliondollar conservation program, the Agriculture Department said Tuesday.

“Preliminary figures from the field show that we got approximately 301,650 offers for almost 26 million acres,” Secretary Dan Glickman announced.

Glickman said 8 million acres were proposed for first-time enrollment in the Conservation Reserve Program. The remaining 18 million are enrolled in contracts due to expire in September.

In Washington, 4,853 offers were made to enroll 794,000 acres, or roughly the amount that will expire under existing contracts this year. In Idaho, 3,565 offers were made for 645,000 acres.

The department said it would notify producers by mid-June whether their land had been accepted.