Riverina farmer inadvertently creates tourist attraction with sunflower crop success
/ By Olivia CalverA farmer making the best of challenging circumstances has found he has inadvertently created a tourist attraction.
Key points:
- Riverina farmer takes a punt on dryland sunflowers following a failed canola crop.
- After close to 300mm of rain, the sunflowers are predicted to yield 1.5 tonnes a hectare and could attract up to $2000t/ha.
- Not unusual to see half a dozen cars stopped to take pictures of the sunflowers, a rare sight in the Riverina.
Collingullie farmer Doug Bruckner was looking at a failed canola crop and the prediction of a La Niña summer when he decided to take a punt on growing dryland sunflowers.
Sunflowers are rarely grown in this part of the Riverina near Wagga Wagga, but with close to 300 millimetres of rain in the growing season expected and up to $2000 a tonne on offer, it was a gamble worth taking for the Gnadbro Pastoral Company farmer.
The crowds that have gathered to take pictures of the crop agree, with the paddock of sunflowers stopping plenty of holiday traffic.
After spraying out the failed canola crop, Mr Bruckner said he researched alternatives for his farm's sub-surface soil moisture profile.
"It was an opportunity really … with the mice around earlier in the year and a wetter winter, unfortunately the canola failed," Mr Bruckner said.
"Talk of a La Niña gave us the confidence to grow sunflowers.
"It's turned into a bit of a windfall really, with the way the weather's been."
A La Niña summer
Mr Bruckner hopes the sunflowers will yield up to 1.5 tonnes a hectare.
"To have a couple of falls over a 100mm over the past six to eight weeks is phenomenal," he said.
"It's unfortunate [the rain's] affected our main winter crop and harvest operations.
"But every cloud has a silver lining, doesn't it? We've tried to make a positive out of a negative."
The sunflowers are a mono variety, not the more common stripped sunflowers used in birdseed.
Mono sunflower seeds are crushed for oil or go into high-value stockfeed, such as horse rations.
"I haven't sold them, but I anticipate they may go north because of the cyclones up there," Mr Bruckner said.
"We haven't heard … how much crop damage will be up in that neck of the woods but that's normally where most of the sunflowers are grown, along the coastline."
An unexpected tourist attraction
Mr Bruckner said it was not unusual to see up to six cars parked beside his paddocks during the holiday period when the crop was flowering.
"Our staff were kidding about putting an honesty box down the front and having a marshal down here to manage the traffic.
"It's been a real treat to see people get a real kick out of them."
More risk but more reward
Mr Bruckner's agronomist Ben Mathews said dryland sorghum was another option for farmers looking to take advantage of a wet summer.
But with so much feed currently in the market, for Mr Bruckner the numbers did not compare to growing sunflowers.
"The sunflowers are worth a lot more money, probably a little bit more risk involved, but this year it has worked out really well,” Mr Mathews said.
And it is not only tourists attracted to the sunflowers, Mr Mathews said the crop has not needed an insecticide as ladybugs and other beneficial insects were doing the job for them.
"We've just let nature take care of itself and so far, it's got through really well."