After centuries of farming, Hutterite colony expanding into building construction

[Ptah]

RYEGATE — Last spring, members of the Golden Valley Hutterite Colony plowed under their lentil field and on the land began construction of a manufacturing plant.

The structure, now nearly complete, is all steel and concrete and will produce custom steel trim, siding and roofs for commercial and residential use, putting the colony in competition with big companies like Bridger Steel.

Named Valley Steel LLC, it's all professional and top-of-the-line.

"It's going to be right or we're not going to do it," said Dan Kleinsasser, the Hutterite leading the operation.

The move into steel product manufacturing is a leap of faith for the colony. Until now, the colony, like farmers and ranchers all across Eastern Montana, has been an exclusively agriculture operation, producing wheat and lentils, milk, eggs, chickens, hogs and, just in time for Thanksgiving, turkeys.

http://billingsgazette.com/business/after-centuries-of-farming-hutterite-colony-expanding-into-building-construction/article_073c92d7-1f5a-5e9c-8b29-f0de24b2438b.html#tncms-source=home-top-story-1

[brewens]

1. I love those guys! My girlfriend lives right down the highway from a colony in Washington state.

She's in good with one of their honcho's and they have saved us thousands of dollars. We used to be in mobile food vending. About every year, to start the season, we would need refrigeration and mechanic work done. If we gave them plenty of notice, a couple guys would come out and fix us up, for about a quarter of what anyone else would do and a case or two of beer!