FOR the first time in seven years, the vibrant yellow vista of fields of sunflower crops are brightening the landscape of the Gersbach family's Capella property, Kurrajong.
Tim Gersbach and his parents, Gary and Cathy, are among the many Central Highlands growers who have planted the oilseed crop this year.
Better price prospects for sunflowers compared to sorghum, as well as a later planting window, have seen an estimated 25,000 hectares planted to sunflowers this season across the Central Highlands.
The Gersbachs have planted close to 500ha of Aussie Gold 62 sunflowers on their dryland farming operation, which also has chickpeas, wheat and sorghum at present.
The sunflower crop was planted into wheat stubble in February and will be harvested in about a month's time.
Tim Gersbach said price, the planting window and the emergence of new varieties more resistant to tobacco streak virus (TSV) were among the appealing aspects of growing sunflowers again.
"It's the first time we've grown sunflowers since 2005, and certainly the price of sorghum prompted us to plant them," Mr Gersbach said.
"They're also good for being able to spray Verdict in to kill summer grass.
"AWB had a meeting at our shed earlier this year and said they were interested in growers in this region getting into sunflowers again.
"We put about 25kg of Starter and 75kg of urea with the sunflowers and they're looking good so far.
"Our only challenge so far has been wild pigs - we had a helicopter in last week to deal with them. They're an issue right across the district at the moment."
Mr Gersbach said the supply chain cost to truck the crop from Capella to Newcastle, NSW, was about the $100/tonne mark at the moment.
Delta Grain Marketing CQ manager, Tony Matchett, Emerald, said about 99 per cent of the sunflowers being grown in the Central Highlands were monounsaturated varieties.
"On-farm, you're looking at prices of around $420/t for mono sunflowers from the Central Highlands, compared to the sorghum price which on-farm is around $160/t at the moment," Mr Matchett said.
"We're still working out supply chain costs to freight to Newcastle to maximise value on-farm to growers.
"AWB is establishing segregation at GrainCorp Emerald for growers to deliver to if they want that option.
"I had a look at a couple of crops on Sunday and they look absolutely fantastic. They're going to be good heavy grain and they should be really good oil as well."
