WORDS AND IMAGES BY ANNIE STUDHOLME
Marty Skurr is no ordinary cropping farmer. Intent on connecting with consumers directly, showing them why things are done on-farm and giving them a better understanding of where their food comes from, combined with a passion for growing great grain, he’s gone out on a limb, setting up his own stone ground flour mill.
Having started small, testing the waters with a mill imported from Austria, Minchins Milling is weeks away from taking the business to the next level. They have invested heavily in time and money to custom-design and custom-build a new large-scale stone ground mill capable of significantly increasing production.
“It’s really exciting. People that use the product love it,” says Marty. “The first mill proved the concept but was terribly inefficient on time. The demand for the product was there, but we needed scale to make it viable. It’s a passion for me, but you have to be sensible. It still has to make money.”
Branching into milling is just the next step in the history of Riverview Farm. One Marty hopes will create even more opportunities in the future.
For nearly a century, the Skurr family have farmed on the south bank of the Waimakariri River. Marty is the fourth generation on the land. He had always intended to go farming. After finishing school, he went to Lincoln University, where he completed a Diploma of Agriculture and Farm Management before working locally and overseas, returning to the farm full-time in 2013.
Though the farm’s deep, heavy silt-terraced country was good cropping land, growing dryland wheat and barley wasn’t without risks, given its potential exposure to drying nor’westers. The shift to irrigation with water through the Central Plains Water (CPW) scheme allowed the Skurrs to scale up their cropping business by adding three centre-pivot irrigators.
They grow various crops on the 198-hectare home block, including ryegrass, wheat, clover, radish, hybrid carrot seed, and process peas, along with running about 2500 store lambs.
Marty was putting in between 40-60 hectares of wheat annually. Keen to find a way of adding value, he began looking at alternative crops.
About seven years ago, a serendipitous encounter with internationally renowned craft baker Dan Cruden got him thinking. At the time, Dan was working as the head baker for Amano in Auckland’s Britomart complex, one of the few bakeries in the country to have its own onsite flour mill. They remained in touch.
“When you grow something like milling wheat, it’s harvested, put into a truck, then on-sold and disappears so that it could end up in someone’s flour in bread in Christchurch or somewhere overseas; we don’t know. There are so many rules and regulations placed on farmers these days that I wanted something that I could turn into a positive.”
Marty started playing around with speciality grains. He first attempted cultivating spelt, a grain that dates back to 5000 BC, closely linked to wheat, but under their farming system, it proved a lot of work for less than favourable results.
Following consideration and discussions with Dan, who had left Amano to set up the famed The Real Bread Project in Helensville, Marty decided the future was in milling their own
wheat. So the two banded together and came to an arrangement whereby Marty would supply a mill and a consistent grain supply to Dan.
The original plan was to import about a dozen mills, put them in small to medium bakeries, and have a grain agreement back to Riverview Farm, but a few issues with the mill in Auckland highlighted problems in their plan. “I realised it was probably easier to do it at home with much more control of the whole process,” says Marty.
Marty installed the new mill in a fitted-out shipping container in the corner of an existing grain shed to keep costs down. But with a young family and a busy farm to run, it sat idle for many months until the first Covid-19 lockdown forced his hand.
As the nation scrambled to buy flour, Marty realised it was a case of now or never.
“Lockdown was the kick in the pants we needed to get it up and running,” he says. “We thought, crikey, we have to do something. We always had a website, but it gave us the impetus to start pushing the online site.”
Luckily, they had a friend who was an IT whizz that could do the work, and within days, people could buy Minchins Milling’s products. Sales took off, and before long, wholesalers, bakers and home cooks sang their stone-ground flour praises up and down the country.
Marty explains that stone ground milling is nothing new; it has been around for centuries. Its slow, delicate process and higher extraction rate mean more of the wheat’s essential
nutrients are retained in the flour.
“It’s quite different to bake with as it’s not as refined. I haven’t had it tested, but theoretically, it will have more nutritional value because it contains more [wheat]germ, endosperm and bran and is higher in natural fats and oils. It means the consumer is getting all the benefits of the other portions of grain which are usually taken out while retaining its depth of flavour.”
The stone mills used today aren’t all that different from their historical counterparts. The only actual distinction is that modern stones are composed of a carefully manufactured
composite material that requires less upkeep and is propelled by electricity rather than water, wind, or animal force. The ‘Osttiroler’ stone mill he started using was built by a family
company that has been in the business for 80 years. Sadly, its capacity was as old-world as its technology, meaning it could only process 40–70 kilograms per hour, depending on the product. While it produced a quality product, it proved labour-intensive and highly inefficient.
Marty initially devoted one day a week to milling while processing wholesale orders in the evenings. Still, as the business grew, the mill started eating away at more of his time, putting a strain on other facets of their business. He soon realised the only way to make it cost-effective was to get a much bigger mill.
“It’s all been through word of mouth and social media. It’s incredible where our business comes from and where our flour ends up. When we started, the basic business plan was for 50/50 retail to wholesale, but it ended up being about 80 per cent direct to business because of the volume. It’s not for every bakery, but it’s given us the confidence that there’s enough of a market out there to give it a crack.”
Marty credits Dan Cruden for really putting them on the map. Dan makes products (at The Real Bread Project) from stone ground flour using Riverview Farm-grown wheat and also supplies other bakeries.
“Those early customers (like Dan) have been key to our success. More and more people seem to be interested in the providence of their food. The bakers are committed to
selling the story. We wouldn’t be where we are today without those people. We’ve had some wonderful feedback from people using the product. It’s so rewarding to get an email from someone saying how much they love it. That’s what keeps you going.”
Marty says unlike animal products which are more expensive to market, they’re fortunate their products are shelf-stable and can be stored for a long time. They also have less low value by-products to deal with.
But taking the next step has been challenging.
“The hardest thing has been getting help and advice. It’s a bit of a guarded industry. It’s not as though you can go out and buy a stone ground mill of this size. It involved talking to a lot of people.”
In 2021, he attended the UK Grain Lab, an annual meeting of bakers, millers, grain growers and scientists to advance an alternative grain economy in the UK. Marty found the contacts he made there invaluable.
On his return, Marty set about trying to buy the individual components to build their stone mill from scratch, presenting various challenges.
“Just trying to find everything; it’s been a slow grind. Everything has taken time. It’s either custom-made or custom-designed. None of it is just run-of-the-mill stuff.”
Marty had initially hoped to have the new mill operational before the end of last year, but the project had suffered one hold-up after another.
He explains that the mill stones themselves had taken over a year to arrive from when he ordered and paid for them until they finally showed up last November.
Having initially set up Minchins Milling within the farming business, it is now set up under its own umbrella. He has also brought in some industry leaders to assist with helping make decisions and some guidance.
The mill is only one half of the Minchins Milling success story, though. The other is the grain produced on Riverview Farm. While he is not interested in going organic, Marty remains committed to doing everything possible to benefit the environment while reducing their footprint. They use sustainable farming practices whether it’s nutrient budgets,
GPS guidance, centre pivot irrigation, soil mapping and testing, incorporating crop residues, soil moisture monitoring probes, Farm Environment Plans, direct drilling, cover crops
or biodiversity plantings. The farm is also home to a 2-hectare native wetland and other natural native areas which have been looked after for four generations, and that will continue.
Marty says they’re always refining their farming methods. Every operation is assessed to get the right tool for the job. They find the most sensible way to use their land to yield the
highest quality crops whilst looking after the soil. Having a diverse crop rotation involving cereals, grasses, legumes and livestock are key to keeping the soil nourished and balanced. By keeping up with progressive farming practices and technology, he says it allows them to reinvest into the farm business to increase efficiency, resilience and biodiversity while enhancing the quality of their grain.
They closely monitor each crop for weather and disease. Where possible, they use disease-resistant varieties and delay planting, as less time in the ground means less time for a
disease to strike. Most of the milling varieties they use come from the New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research, all part of the story of using Kiwi tried and tested, says Marty.
The first time he tried ‘spray free,’ it was a success. The 12 hectares had been in lucerne for three years, so it was able to produce a 9-t/ha crop without urea and only had a preemergent herbicide applied. But he tried it again the following year, and it was terrible.
“It’s common-sense stuff,” says Marty. “You have to be flexible. We try not to rely on chemicals for everything. Where we can reduce it, we do. But if the crop looks like it needs a
hand or we are in a bad weather system, we spray if we have to. There is too much at stake if we don’t put it on. You don’t want to back yourself into a corner and say it’s ‘spray-free’ and then not have anything to sell. You do the best with what you have got.
“At the end of the da y, our responsibility is to produce good food. It would be irresponsible for us to go organic and have nothing to feed the people.”
Marty enjoys explaining to people, especially bakers, the reasons behind what they do on-farm. “Most have absolutely no idea. I get a lot of satisfaction from telling people what
we are doing. Otherwise, they tend to make assumptions. They think we are all eco-terrorists that spray glyphosate on for the sake of it.”
Marty says their wheat quality is almost like a time capsule of what has happened in the paddock for that growing season. There will always be seasonal differences. “It may
perform differently with each season, but I can let people know that. That’s the beauty of having a single origin. I know exactly which paddock it has come out of, and I am in direct
contact with our consumers.”
Unlike conventional flour that has to be less than 15 per cent moisture, their flour can also be slightly dryer than standard flour as unless it requires drying, it’s precisely at what it comes off the harvester.
At Riverview Farm, they aim to keep 12 months of grain on hand to safeguard their product in case of an adverse weather event. But in a bid to de-risk their business as demand increases in the future, Marty says they will have to look at buying wheat from other farms with similar values. He has only talked to farmers at this stage, but they may look at having contracts in due course. “We just don’t have the scale at the moment.”
Since launching Minchins Milling, Marty admits he’s been spreading himself pretty thin trying to do everything from farming to physical milling and all the sales and administration. It’s been tough, especially with a young family. He’s even pulled Georgina in to help with packaging. In the future, he’s realised some decisions need to be made.
“It just comes back to scale to justify having people to do all these other jobs like marketing and Facebook while still keeping it as lean as possible. We have been constrained by time and money. I’m still undecided whether I get someone to run the farm or manage the mill [in the future]. I’m not afraid of bringing in contractors on the farm. You ring someone up, and it’s done.”
While it’s been backbreaking work to get it to this point, Marty says he’s finally excited to take that next step. “I could have bought a lot of nice machinery [for that money], but I didn’t want to die wondering. You are only young once. I saw an opportunity, and we have implemented all the systems to make it happen. We are pretty committed now. It’s been pretty stressful but really enjoyable at the same time. Long-term, hopefully the financial rewards will come.