“I am 18 years old and I came here from Canada to work the potato harvest. When it’s not harvest time I work in the houses, taking turns to cook. When you turn 17, we can have a cook week and a baking week. We rotate the cooking job so we cook every 8 weeks. Other than that we also have a feedlot, so we bring the cow’s home. In the fall we preg check cows and in the spring we do the branding. During our hay harvest, some of the girls drive balers and some drive swathers. When a colony gets too big it splits. Ours just split at…

“I am working harvest right now, but most the time I am the colonies plumber and all around handyman. I also do framework for the houses and work on the appliances in the kitchen. Self-taught of course. Hands on experience. But when it’s harvest time, I am in the truck and the combine.” #agriculture #hutteriancolony

  “A long time ago they used to have Hutterian colonies of 400 people and they were self-sufficient. Now we are only 130 and it still works for us. Hutterites originate from Austria and Southern Germany. The Austrian/German dialect we speak is more High German now. People always ask, how you tell if someone is married or single. Well, you can tell the difference between married people by the things they do and the way they act, just like everyone else. The men start wearing a beard because it is a spiritual significance. After baptism, they are not allowed to shave, once you have it you keep it. For women,…

“I work in the scale house, I weigh trucks of course. I’m also the dispatcher, so I let the truck drivers know when they need to change fields and when they have to start going to the new fields. We have 10 trucks on our run here and some of them are outside drivers and they don’t know where the fields are, so I give them directions. I make sure they all have everything they need. I make sure they all have food and I keep the coffee on. If they need a part then I make sure someone gets the part and the shop is ready for them. I…

“I’ve been doing this job since I was about 16. Driving truck and loading potatoes. I grew up around trucks and learned to drive when I was probably 14. When it’s not potato harvest time, I am irrigating and farming, keeping the circles moving.” #agriculture #hutteriancolony

“There is never a dull moment. I work in the shop in the winter time. In the summer, I am out here driving truck or harvesting wheat, hay, peas and beans. I like that if you want to do something, you can go do it. Opportunities are endless. If you have an idea you can go do it, there is nobody holding you back. I built 4 of these machines here. I personally like to manufacture things. They sent me to school for solid works. I made models on the computer to engineer or design machines. It was only a one week class but I still take refresher courses at…

“I manage the Dairy. We milk 330 cows here and my job is to make sure they are comfortable and healthy. I trim most of the cow’s hooves myself. We treat all of the fresh cows every morning, after they fresh, we give them a calcium bolus, vitamin mineral bolus and roman bolus. The milkers start at 2:00 in the morning and then again at 1:45 in the afternoon. I go to the diary at 7:30 in the morning and make sure all is going well. We have 20 milking stations and it takes four plus hours to milk all the cows. I have three milkers, two to milk and…

“I am the feeder for all the dairy cows. I work with a nutritionist to work out the feed and all the specs. I put alfalfa, cotton seed, canola, corn and molasses. Then I mix in the forage like haylage, triticale and corn silage. That will be mixed right before I feed, so it doesn’t get hot. I feed twice a day. This big blue mixer has a digital scale so I can put 600 pounds hay and then reset it and put in 2,400 pounds of the batch that I mixed earlier. I reset it each time I add something. That batch is for the milkers, I have different…

“This is my third year coming to help work harvest. I like to come down here to meet new people. I do have some family here. My grandparents live here, my Mom is from here, so I come down every year to help. I am from Riverside in Canada, it’s near Alberta. There we farm hay, wheat, barley, peas and canola. I am also helping build a 5 unit house so I paint, tile and grout. I get to do a little bit of everything there.” #agriculture #hutteriancolony

“I am the piler. My job is to pile the potatoes in the shed. I’m 18 years old and this is my first year at this job so I am learning. It’s not easy. I have to work really fast, no stopping. Back and forth with the conveyor belt to keep the piles even. We are working long hours right now during harvest. Normally I am in school, but we get out for harvest. I like it, it’s okey. I want to be able to look at my work and take pride.” #agriculture #potatoharvest #hutteriancolony