Many would consider spring over with the conclusion of the Memorial Day holiday. I usually view spring as being a quagmire of wet weather and muddy fields. With the absence of April showers this year, did we deserve May flowers? Many also think of spring cleaning, and that definitely occurred this year on my farm.
The price for recycled steel at the scrap yard is at lofty levels. If my memory is correct, the last time we had similar prices the nations economy was not far away from tipping into a major recession. Please do not let me douse anyone’s post-covid bonfire celebration. I cannot predict recessions.
One of the side benefits of cleaning up around the farm and trips to the scrap yard is the income that can be generated at the same time as tidying up. For example, in the corner of my barn sat a combine that had not been in the field since 2012. My dad bought the John Deere 4400 combine new in 1979. The benefit to storing it the last couple years is that it is now worth twice as much since the price for scrap steel has gone up. The owner’s manual listed it at a weight of 9860 pounds. My flat bed trailer was plated for 6,000 pounds. How easy would it be to lighten the combine and load it on the trailer?
With only a few hours of wrench work the hopper extensions, straw walkers, chopper, feederhouse, unloading auger, radiator and fuel tank were removed. A chain and tractor easily yanked the cab, clean grain and tailings elevator off the machine. This made the combine look much smaller, but it was still heavy. After the engine and transmission were removed, it was time to load the remaining skeleton onto the trailer. After pushing it on the trailer, the rear axle and large front tires were removed and the combine was strapped down on the trailer deck.
My math proved correct. The core of the machine weighed just less than 5000 pounds when delivered and yielded a little over $550. A second load with all the removed appendages yielded over $600. My last of 5 total loads delivered this spring was an old gravity wagon box sitting on the trailer with thousands of pounds of scrap steel in it. As I unstrapped and waited for the claw to unload the steel, I noticed a SMV (slow moving vehicle) emblem in good condition attached to the wagon. At the last minute I was able to remove it. I will use it on one of my hayracks.
This spring I replaced two bad bearings on an old disk. The new bearings cost $50 each. With a scrap steel price of $245/per gross ton, each pound of steel is worth about 12 cents when recycled. That means the bad bearings that weighed about 4 pounds returned 50 cents of the new price of fifty bucks. The metal triangle warning emblem that I had removed at the last minute did not even weigh a pound.
Many times I have used the saying, “A rising tide lifts all ships.” After making my last delivery to the scrap yard in Kankakee, I stopped at the farm supply store. The prices for livestock feeds were quite high. Steel and wood fencing supplies are also up. Is that the rising tide effect? I saw that the orange metal triangles sell for $9.99. That means recycling that triangle emblem from my wagon at the last minute was equal to picking up a 10-dollar bill off the ground. Some may not think that is a big deal, but it made my day a lot better.
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