Schulte Industries of Englefeld is doing what they do best, designing and fabricating superior farm and utility machinery, for a cause near to their hearts. Employees at the company banded together to build a cutter emblazoned with colours of the Ukrainian flag for auction. All the proceeds will go to Ukraine relief. 

Rob Muench, communications and marketing coordinator for Schulte Industries, explains how the project came about. 

“We’ve done similar projects in the past,” says Muench, “And it’s been a long time in the making, this project. We did something similar for the Prairie Women on Snowmobiles, a pink snowblower. We wanted to come up with something that our Ukrainian employees could contribute to and we thought this would be the perfect thing.”

Muench says the GX 150 rotary cutter up for auction is a relatively new design, one that fills a niche for on farm and large yard use. The manufacturer was lacking that specific application in its product line, and the model went into production a couple of years ago. Since then it’s seen considerable success. 

A bit of research went into precisely matching the colours of the Ukrainian flag, and following a donation of paint by PPG Paints, employees went to work creating the one of a kind cutter. 

The needs of refugees in Ukraine has been great since the start of the Russian invasion, and Schulte has long standing ties with those who have emigrated from Ukraine, responding to a call for employment the manufacturer around 20 years ago. 

“We’ve been working with the Saskatchewan government on their immigration program. The original four employees were brought over about 20 years ago to fill out some of our needs for welders, and they’ve integrated into our community very well. Since then, we’ve added a number of other Ukrainian born employees, and it’s proved to be a really good contribution, not only to the company, but to our community as a whole.” 

The cutter will be up for grabs through an online auction, courtesy of Ritchie Bros. who are donating their services. The cutter will be auctioned off sometime in the fall. A date for the auction will be set and will be announced on the Schulte Industries website and through its social media platforms. All proceeds from the auction will be going to the Canadian Ukrainian Congress, Saskatchewan Chapter, with the money going directly to help those displaced by the Ukraine-Russian War.