Farm Operated Flour Mill

Farm Operated Flour Mill SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 4-1-26 A Minnesota wheat farmer, who thinks there are too many steps between the wheat grower and the flour miller, has eliminated most of them by becoming a miller as well as a wheat grower. Don Bot, of Cottonwood, is now milling his home-grown wheat into whole wheat flour on his own farm and selling it directly to bakeries in southwesterr Minnesota, eastern South Dakota, and northwestern Iowa. ''There are a lot of things'to do before you can get into milling," he notes. "We had to meet all the regulations of the big mills and get permits from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Our equipment had to be made to order and sometimes took 6 months to get." The capacity of Bot's mill is 50 lbs. of flour per hour. He is now in the process of automating the mill so it will run for 20 hrs. with only 3 hrs. of attention. This year, he hopes to mill 4,000 bu. of wheat. (A bushel of wheat makes 50 lbs. of flour.) The uniqueness of Bot's home-milled flour is that the wheat is carefully managed from soil preparation through harvest. Bot is not promoting his flour as "organic"'though it probably meets the requirements set by some organic definitions. Any wheat that doesn't meet his strict quality standards goes into livestock feed. Another caution to those who would like to do farm milling is that they will need storage space. Wheat must be stored 5 or 6 months before milling into flour. Another product of Bot's farm is honey which he feels is an ideal product to market and promote with whole wheat flour. For more details, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Don Bot, Cottonwood Farm Foods, Cottonwood, Minn. 56229 (ph 507 423-6648).

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