A young entrepreneur has reason to smile with a sunny crop and some amazing opportunities coming up, writes ANDY WILSON.
Entrepreneurial skimming off the family farm by the next generation is nothing new and often breeds greater productivity.
A daughter’s spin-off chicken enterprise here, a teenager’s change of sheep breed there, and I personally know one of the country’s biggest fresh raspberry producers who, in his late teens, asked the old man if he could take a fraction of the otherwise machine-harvested crop. ‘Please, Dad, for I’ve got an idea’.
At 11 years old, Nate Murrells has got quite a head start on any known contemporaries, nestled into the sunflower crop of parents Glenn and Hayley on the edge of Echuca.
This summer sees him nestle further.
Winter is typically a well-deserved downtime for crops such as sunflowers and the Murrells’ now empty 20 hectares will grow to 40 by early December’s sowing date thanks largely to Nate’s entrepreneurialism.
“I have just finished heading the crop,” Glenn said.
“Nate has gone out now and is picking up heads for bird people as bird feed.”
The majority of the crop is grown for bird seed, oil and stock feed and the family rotates the crop around the farm to avoid the build up of disease.
This winter will see an oats crop freshen up last season’s soil.
What Nate has brought along is marketing a small fraction of the crop as a pick-your-own enterprise throughout summer.
Nate is in Year 6 at Moama Grammar School and used his mathematics acumen to “sit down and work through some numbers”.
“I just really wanted to grow my own crop and I was thinking sunflowers or canola,” Nate said.
“I went with sunflowers.”
Nate also arranged for a professional photographer to visit and photograph visitors with the iconic colourful background.
“Or you could take your own photos,” he said.
“We advertised by putting up signs in town and ads all through Facebook and Instagram. Even some fliers at school.”
Nate stresses the ‘bring your own secateurs’ policy for customers who wish to take their time selecting the perfect sunflower or bunch of flowers.
“You can have a look at them and can walk through and pick whatever you want to buy,” he said.
Nate has earned the praise of at least one other grower of 40 years standing who told him he was ‘smart’ to start such an enterprise so early in life.
“He also knew all this information. I was surprised at what else I learnt,” Nate said.
The family grows hybrid sunflowers which are also sold for confectionery (roasted, snack bars and trail mix).
“Last season we grew black-seeded ones, but now we are going to sow grey-striped ones which is the preferred type,” Glenn said.
“And Nate did quite well not putting a scratch into the crop. I get the grown harvest and he gets the little bit before that — a bit of an earner for him.”
Bunches were also sold to florists and Nate hopes for more custom this summer.
The sunflower season aligns perfectly with the school year, with the crop sown and up by the time school is out for summer, allowing him to spend his late-summer holidays running the core business.
The season then winds up almost perfectly two weeks into first term with the last sales of fresh flowers aligning with Valentines’s Day.
At the height of the crop, Nate found customers pouring in within 10 minutes of him opening the gates, and although he asks customers to be mindful of the bees, he has no real worries.
“The bees won’t sting — they are my friends,” he said.
Apart from the new variety Aussie Strip being sown this year, there are plans to take guests further into the crop — literally.
“I will make a maze this year for people to walk through,” Nate said.
“The walls will grow themselves.”