The first government forecast of the growing season shows U.S. farmers planted fewer acres of winter wheat for harvest this year.

The report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service released Friday showed 41.9 million acres of winter wheat was planted this year, down 2 percent from last year. In Kansas only 8.8 million acres of winter wheat was planted, down 7 percent from a year ago.

Chuck Otte, Geary County Research and Extensions Agent said that the reason for the decrease in Kansas may have something to do with a late harvest of fall crops. “I think some of the fall crops came off a little bit late and it got cool and kind of damp and it was just kind of discouraging to plant wheat.”

The decrease isn’t something new though,”If you look, especially around here, winter wheat acres for the past 20 years have really dropped off because soybeans and corn can make them so much more money.”

Oklahoma and South Dakota also saw large acreage decreases while Colorado, Montana and North Dakota saw significant increases.