This puts farmers near teachers and firefighters in the public's view, and ahead of scientists and other professionals. This ranks farmers ahead of government employees of the Park Service and Forest Service. While many preliminary yield estimates are based on tiller counts, tillers don't tell much until we know how big the head will be, how many kernels will be in each head, and how big and heavy the kernels are at maturity. Wheat kernels normally vary from 10,000 to 18,000 seeds per pound. After the 1995 freeze, counts of cleaned seed, actually planted, ran as high as 24,000 seeds per pound.
Some thin fields can produce outstanding yields because they produce large seeds.
While many kernels are smaller this year, that third, and in some cases fourth kernel filled, and this accounts for some fields making far more grain than they normally would have. Depending on weather conditions, and heat usually spells disaster for those kernels in the High Plains, these extra kernels are usually smaller, and many go out the back of the combine when harvested. Fields that formed on late tillers with little freeze damage, are greatly increasing the yields of this freeze damaged crop. Even with the explosion of leaf rust, many of these heads are forming decent test weight grain. We don't expect to see much grain over 60 lbs per bushels like in some years, but this crop will have superior quality to the 1995 freeze damaged crop.