by Benjamin Wollman
Newdale Hutterite Colony is located a twenty-minute drive south of Brandon, MB. The colony was founded in 1974 by Bon Homme Colony, which is near Elie, MB.
Hutterite colonies are generally large farms. Newdale Colony was no exception. In the photo above, you can see the piggery and dairy.
Since its creation, Newdale has experienced significant shifts, slowly changing into a more industrial colony. In 1988, the colony decide to order one of the first metal roll formers in western Canada. This metal siding was a new idea at the time, so it was a risky move. The business was first called Agra-Metals, but changed its name to Domtek in the early 2000s. Domtek has diversified to more than metal siding. Today, they sell all the commodities that are needed to finish the outside of commercial and residential buildings.
In the photo above, the piggeries have been either repurposed or demolished, and the dairy barn is gone. If you look closely, you can still see crop farming still occurring, and a pig barn that has been turned into a beef cow-calf feedlot. Domtek MFG was able to replace the pigs and still support the community. A few dairy cows and poultry were kept for the colony’s consumption.
Domtek Manufacturing is the huge building in the top centre of the picture above. It is the industrial hub of the community.
Within a generation, Newdale Colony became mostly industrially and not agriculturally-focussed. The colony currently has 150 members, over half of whom work at Domtek. The only thing left from the time of the colony’s founding is the cow-calf feedlot and some animals for personal consumption. The cultivating acres are not farmed by the members anymore due to a lack of people available to work it.