Companies that relied on the flour mill in Pendleton to produce their products are finding new venues.

Shepherd’s Grain will move production to Grain Craft’s mill in Blackfoot, Idaho.

The farmer-owned company expects all of its flours to be available again by Saturday, Oct. 1, after the fire in August destroyed the mill in Pendleton, where most of it was produced.

“We milled basically all of our flour at the Pendleton Grain Craft mill,” said Jeremy Bunch, Shepherd’s Grain CEO. The company’s whole wheat flour already was milled at Blackfoot.

“When the fire happened, we had to switch gears completely,” Bunch said. “That fire just completely put us out of business since Aug. 10 — we have not had flour available to sell.”

Shepherd’s Grain mills 600,000 to 700,000 bushels of wheat each year.

There was a month’s supply of wheat in the Pendleton mill at the time of the fire, Bunch said.

The cost to Shepherd’s Grain is not yet known, Bunch said.

“We’re still working out a lot of details,” he said.

Roughly 38 farmers in the Pacific Northwest and North Dakota grow wheat for Shepherd’s Grain. The company is adding to that number with farmers in southeast Idaho, Bunch said.

Shepherd’s Grain buys the wheat from its growers and sells it to Grain Craft. In turn, Shepherd’s Grain helps sell the flour in the marketplace, Bunch said.

Most of Shepherd’s Grain’s customers are in Portland and Seattle. Customers will have to pay a little bit more in freight, since Blackfoot is farther than Pendleton, Bunch said.

“In the big scheme of things, it’s not going to affect our flour prices very much this coming year,” he said.

Bunch doesn’t expect sales to be affected. He credits the relationship between the farmers and customers.

“All that we have received is just overwhelming support through this tragedy from the marketplace,” he said. “They are anxious to get their hands back on our flour.”