This suggests that the growth rate during the growing season is similar at both locations. The crop is harvested by cutting the stems near ground level, chopping the biomass with a heavy duty forage harvester, and feeding the chopped material into a transport bin. The bin can also be designed to act as the distillation vessel. Steam distillation is used to extract the oil from the biomass and, after the vapours are condensed, a flotation procedure is used to separate the oil from condensed steam. A plantation will require the normal machinery that is used for row cropping, together with specialised harvesting and distillation equipment.
Small producers can pool their resources and use a single distillation unit.
In some districts, harvesting and distillation can be done under contract. The oil yield reflects both the oil concentration and biomass yield. Yields from the new selections should be higher but yield trials are required to quantify the amount. The above yields relate to a single harvest and they tend to be similar in all regions. However, where the harvest interval is shorter as in north Queensland, the oil yield per annum will be greater.