CENTRAL Queensland sunflower grower Roland Hornick is looking to the skies to deliver liquid gold by early March to allow him to plant his summer crop.
The second generation farmer grows sunflowers on his 1821 hectare property, 35km east of Springsure, along with corn, sorghum, chickpeas, mungbeans and cotton under irrigated and dryland farming.
Despite a 65 mm downpour to kick off 2016, more rain is needed.
“There is still a long way to go before I am even ready to plant,” Mr Hornick said. “I would need at least 100-150 mm; the place is very dry.”
Mr Hornick’s father chose sunflowers for management and harvestability.
“It was the first crop planted on this property in 1987,” Mr Hornick said. “It was all freshly developed country, the ground was a little rough and it had a lot of sticks and good deep rich soil.
“As sunfowers are a lot taller off the ground, sticks and stones are not such an issue.”
Mr Hornick grows around 323 hectares of sunflowers across two plantings. The plant density is 27,000 plants to the hectare, slightly higher under irrigation which also helps deliver better yields and quality.
“The spring plant option is from mid July to the first week in August,” Mr Hornick said. “Young sunflowers are relatively tolerant to frost and we like to get the crops through early to get around the November/December heat.”
“The second option is summer. We have found from the middle of February to first week of March is the most accessible long-term planting date as it seems to produce better yields.”
Water is the key – its lack of resulting in decreased yields in recent years. Sunflowers needed a full profile of water at planting.
“For a long period we were averaging 2.5 tonnes to the hectare but with the dry over the last three years there is not much coming in over one tonne to the hectare,” Mr Hornick said.
“We have experienced a lot of unseasonal heat and lack of rain.”
Mr Hornick always looks to capitalise on market opportunities which has included supplying the lucrative feed market, where sunflowers are fed to horses, and AWB Cargill for crushing.
While $500/tonne on farm represented a good return on sunflowers, the industry in central Queensland is relatively small.
Mr Hornick said sunflowers was the main crop in the region for a long time before an outbreak of tobacco streak virus (TSV) many years ago which made former producers gun shy. TSV is no longer considered to be a threat in central Queensland due to new hyrbid varieties.
Mr Hornick monitors the crops for pests like rutherglen bugs and powdery mildew.