![Aaron Sanderson in his sunflower crop at Gayndah. Picture: Judith Maizey Aaron Sanderson in his sunflower crop at Gayndah. Picture: Judith Maizey](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/217645017/f497c412-ef00-4d67-bed4-7d36c5ca82f1.JPG/r0_81_4032_2939_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A deluge of rain soon after planting could have wrecked the sunflower crop outside of Gayndah for Aaron Sanderson.
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But having survived that downpour, Mr Sanderson is now hoping for more rain at Easter to give his sunflowers a boost before harvesting.
Mr Sanderson, trading as Terra Foods, said his sunflower crop would be the first for the Gayndah area in a long while and his first in 25 years.
He said he used to grow a lot of sunflowers at Clermont when it was a staple crop in Central Queensland.
"As the (sunflower) crushing facilities started to close in Queensland back at that time - my guess was because of canola becoming more popular in the south as well as a move to zero till farming practices - the market for sunflowers largely dried up and that's why they faded away back in 1990s," he said.
"There used to be several crushing plants in Queensland and now none of those exist."
Mr Sanderson said he had forward sold his sunflowers on contract to PB Agrifood in Toowoomba where most of it would likely end up in the bird seed market.
He said he planted sunflowers as he wanted a rotational crop for this particular 90 hectare paddock where he had previously grown sorghum and wheat.
"As there is a fair bit of stone in this paddock, I wanted something that you could harvest up off the ground," he said.
"I've been growing mungbeans which worked well, but they're not the crop for this paddock."
The Ausigold 62 sunflower variety was planted in late January and when they were only about one inch high, Mr Sanderson said they got almost 200 mm of rain over two days.
"So that messed up their hair a bit and we've lost a few as they had a bit of a struggle to hang on to the soil at that stage - it was just a storm that came and then we got another one the next afternoon and it moved a lot of water around here," he said.
"Since that challenging start, they've grown quite well and they're now starting to use the sub soil moisture up a bit. We might get a wet Easter and it might just finish them off nicely."
Harvest is expected to start in early May and will likely only take three days with Mr Sanderson happy if he gets a yield of one tonne/hectare.
After the sunflowers, Mr Sanderson said he might let the paddock lie fallow until summer when he could plant sorghum again.
"It will depend on moisture levels - we're fairly opportunistic croppers so if it gets wet enough, quick enough, we've always got a chance of a winter crop, but most likely it will be next summer when we will probably go back into sorghum, corn or a grass crop."
![A closeup of a sunflower grown by Aaron Sanderson, Gayndah. Picture: Judith Maizey A closeup of a sunflower grown by Aaron Sanderson, Gayndah. Picture: Judith Maizey](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/217645017/99c9a033-4319-4970-9334-6576608db29b.JPG/r0_0_4032_3024_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Prior to moving to the Gayndah district, Mr Sanderson said he had spent a fair chunk of his life as a graingrower in Central Queensland before a decade growing grain in the Burdekin.
He said he then stepped away from farming for a while to set up a farm consultancy business operating in Australia and Asia before a return to cropping in 2018.
As well as share farming sunflowers and other grain crops, Mr Sanderson grows irrigated pasture with his wife, Judy Skilton, on a home block at Ban Ban Springs.
Mr Sanderson said the sunflowers were a good fit for the area and that particular paddock.
"They grow well and certainly capture everybody's interest and they've been quite trouble free," he said.
"I nearly sprayed them for some heliothis grubs, but decided at the last minute that we wouldn't otherwise there's been no real insect issues and my fertiliser supply seems adequate.
"Weed control got a bit of a flogging with the extreme rain early on and it looks a bit messy underfoot, but we will survive that so it seems like a really good option and there's a good chance we will repeat it, particularly as sorghum and corn have come under pressure from fall armyworm."