Holdingford fire highlights the importance of small-town grain mills as community hubs
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For more than a century, the Holdingford Mill has been a draw for the small Stearns County town of Holdingford and a resource for small start-up farms.
“It brings people to town, and that brings them to three, four different businesses,” said owner Jeff Burg, who’s worked at the mill for the last 41 years, and bought it with his wife a decade ago. “It's a hub.”
But on Feb. 15, a massive fire razed the mill, leaving only a warehouse still standing — and the community trying to figure out how to fill the void.
“The mill draws people into town that otherwise might not come,” said Nicky Lahr, the town’s treasurer, in an email. “After all, Holdingford is not a ‘destination city’ and isn’t really ‘on the way’ to anything.”
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The mill not only sold cattle feed but cat food, dog food, bird seed and even softener salt.
Burg said he wasn’t sure if the mill's customers would stick around when he took control back in 2016. But they did, and he’s grateful.
He said they’ve been able to grow connections with the community due to his farming background and longstanding connection to the town.
“They hung with us, and we thrived because of that,” said Burg.
Now that the mill is gone, Holdingford wants to help. Business owners have offered to step in and hire his employees, a local hardware store offered him a temporary office and, of course, people have offered him money.
"You wouldn't believe the community,“ Burg said. “It just brings a tear to my eye.”
While the messages of support have meant a lot to him, he said he doesn’t want any monetary handouts.
“Give it to somebody who really needs it,” he said. “We're okay. We have insurance.”
A resource for smaller farmers
The Holdingford mill was not big enough to compete with larger grain mills catering to large farms. However, it didn’t need to, because it focused on catering to smaller producers.
In general, “(Larger mills) don't make anything smaller than two tons of feed, and it'll take three days to get it,” said Burg.
That approach alienates beginning and smaller farmers who don’t have the storage or need for that much feed all at once, he said. But, order 500 pounds of feed from a smaller feed mill like Holdingford Mill and you could get it delivered the same day — a service bigger mills don’t usually offer.
Personalized service to smaller or beginner farms is a trait of many smaller mills that bigger ones just can’t compete with, Burg said.
“My wife and I both are from farms. We understand farming. We talk farmer, we live farmer,” he said.
James Salfer, who works as a dairy educator for the University of Minnesota Extension, emphasizes the importance of smaller mills.
“They can help a lot of these startup farms kind of get into business,” he said. “They're not real specialized, and they have a lot of internal kind of expertise.”
While bigger mills can offer vast amounts of feed for cheap, smaller ones add a personal touch, delivering smaller loads, mixing specialized feed mixes and having a store that people can buy smaller bags of feed from.
“They serve an important role in small local communities,” said Salfer. “They have more of a front door, more of a store for people to come in.”
What now?
Ten neighboring feed mills have agreed to help out their customers and cover larger orders while the Burgs get back on their feet.
Moving forward, Burg said the Holdingford Mill will focus on even smaller orders.
The plan is to open a “bag store” at their satellite location in Albany, so customers can still get their bags of dog food, cat food, bird seed and softener pellets, just on a smaller scale.
Unfortunately, he said the prices will have to go up since they have to sell in smaller amounts.
“There's no way we can go back to what we were to everybody, because it's just not possible,” Burg said. “But at the same time, we can still service the needs, just in a little bit different way.”
Correction (Feb. 19, 2026): An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Nicky Lahr's name. The story has been updated.
