Ruby Oskam from Dunedin takes the opportunity for a snap among the sunflowers. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery, Otago Daily Times
Ruby Oskam from Dunedin takes the opportunity for a snap among the sunflowers. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery, Otago Daily Times
The sunflowers near Weston are in full bloom, and are attracting more than just birds.
Owners Peter and Sandra Mitchell said the flowers generated a lot of interest from the public and it was not uncommon for people to stop and take pictures.
Although the couple did not mind visitors enjoying the flowers, it was an issue when people entered the field, and took or knocked over flowers.
People would sometimes get a shock when hopping the electric fence that was placed around the crop for the farm's cattle, Peter Mitchell said.
The crop was rotated around their farm every five years to allow for diseases to naturally dissipate.
In March, the flower heads will be harvested before the seeds are artificially dried.
Topflite marketing co-ordinator Samara Allardice, with Rosedale Farm owners Peter and Sandra Mitchell. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery / Otago Daily Times
Mitchell said because the farm was located so close to the coast, the conditions were too damp for them to dry on their own.
If they were to wait for the seeds to dry naturally, wild birds would decimate the crop.
"They'll eat the lot and won't pay for it."
Mitchell was the fifth-generation owner of the family-operated business and hoped that one of his two sons — one of whom was working on the farm and the other as a production agronomist in Christchurch — would eventually take over.
The flowers were originally grown in the 1970s by Mitchell's father and uncle, who intended to produce oil.
When they discovered the seeds did not yield enough oil, they switched their focus to producing birdseed.
The seeds were exclusively grown for Topflite, a business the couple co-owned with Mitchell's cousin.
