A FORMER potato farmer is harvesting fields of pleasant-looking flowers in Moorabool.
Brian Hanrahan (pictured) says while it’s often confused with garden-variety daisies, pyrethrum is part of the chrysanthemum family and is used as a natural insecticide. Mr Hanrahan has farmed at Dunnstown for 45 years, but it was only two years ago that he started growing the flowers.
“It’s a great natural product and it is going so well that there are five-year contracts in advance,” he says.
The first crop takes about 18 months to harvest, but after the initial growth it can be harvested year after year.
Picked flowers are taken to Ballarat, where they are turned into pellets, then transported to Tasmania where oil is extracted to make household insecticides.
