Is that Wheat Crop Good Enough to Leave for Harvest?

Recently I was asked to look at some wheat fields to give an estimate of yield. The cold winter greatly inhibited growth of wheat. Many plantings did not tiller as much as is normal. Especially wheat that was planted a little late. Also, as of last week we were at least a week behind (if not two weeks) on normal wheat development. The following is a response from Dr. Wade Thomason, Extension Small Grain Specialist regarding the question of how to estimate wheat yields “ It's not an easy answer, as you know. I would start with a tiller count. Tillers per row ft divided by 0.625. Assume you are going to lose about 1/3 of these. Then a decent estimate is about 0.9 bu of yield per tiller. So, if you have 50 tillers in one foot of row, divide by 0.625 and get 80; then time 0.66 equals 52.8; multiply by about 0.9 and get 47.5 bu/ac est. Now this is definitely not a precise science because so many things affect it at this point, but it should get you in the ballpark. I would not treat the numbers as anywhere close to absolute, just reasonable.”