Cow Camp Chatter: The Ranch Boneyard

 by Ron Torell, Long-Standing Educator and Advocate of Agriculture

It certainly works like an loading chute!
Photo by Ron Torrel

We’ve all heard the old cliché that one man's junk is another man's treasure. Nowhere is this more evident than when strolling through a ranch boneyard. The ranch boneyard is a place where worn-out haying equipment, old automobiles, damaged panels, manual chutes, and basically any other piece of ranch equipment, scrap metal or wooden object that was ever used, lie in wait to be called into service again. An old, worn-out piece of junk might one day be restored to its original form or transformed into something new and useful. In this issue of Cow Camp Chatter lets discuss the importance of the ranch boneyard and how being frugal is essential to the economic survivability of ranching.

Many of us take a visual inventory of not only our own boneyard but also those of our neighbors. Almost without exception there’s a ranch repair job that will require an inexpensive resurrection of something from that inventory. It may be something as simple as a piece of scrap metal to repair a piece of equipment or as complex as making a sand and gravel sorting machine. Private industry, particularly those of us in traditional agriculture, must be frugal, many times going to the boneyard rather than buying new to survive. Old-timers Arthur and Norman Glaser of Halleck, Nevada, were as frugal as they come and utilized the ranch boneyard whenever possible. In need of a portable livestock loading chute, they resurrected a worn-out round baler to meet their needs. This loading chute is still in use today by their ranch heirs (see attached photo).

Perhaps one of the best boneyards I’ve seen is that belonging to Dan Mori of Bruneau, Idaho. Dan is a mechanically-minded individual who is handy with a cutting torch and welder. He is also a farm sale addict knowing a good deal when he sees it. I have watched his boneyard grow exponentially over the past ten years. With his skillfulness Dan has built some amazing equipment and made repairs and expansion to his 3,000 head feedlot using these boneyard items. The last time I was at Mori's Feedlot he sent me home with six pieces of scrap iron. I pictured using this to install a livestock scale under my rejuvenated hydraulic squeeze chute, which by the way, I also purchased from his boneyard several years prior. In visiting with Mori he acknowledged, "There is just no way I can buy new. To survive in agriculture you have to be frugal. Everything I have built here has been with limited funding utilizing items from my boneyard."

The salvage value of items in our boneyards can’t be ignored. Various salvage companies around the country offer services of scrapping-out ranch boneyards, resulting in a small income for the boneyard owner. Items such as vintage cars can be sold to car buffs online through e-Bay or Craigslist. Old horse-drawn equipment might be marketed through urban landscaping businesses for lawn decorations. Unusable scrap metal can be sold when demand brings a good price. These items can serve as a source for additional income and help pay down debt.

One should take in to account the many hazards that may be present in our boneyards. When scavenging through a boneyard be aware of the possibility that exists of contacting hanta virus from the mice and rats that live in these digs. Caution is warranted in storing certain items in the boneyard. Old batteries pose an environmental hazard due to the acid and lead contained in them. Livestock or wildlife grazing in the area may ingest the acid or lead-tainted vegetation from these batteries which has been proven to be lethal. Old refrigerators and freezers have been the cause of numerous childhood deaths when children play or hide in them and then suffocate. Care must be taken to insure that accidents like this don’t happen.

Many of us enjoy walking through ranch boneyards. Not only are we able to visualize the transformation of a piece of metal or worn-out equipment, but we can also take a walk down memory lane. A history lesson of the ranch exists in every boneyard. I’ve heard how the Great Depression made people frugal for life. Perhaps our present day society could take a lesson from that generation who repaired rather than threw away and bought new. My wife’s grandfather would swat flies with a homemade swatter made from a worn out piece of window screen attached to a willow stick. A brand new store bought swatter given as a gift sat on the shelf. He was saving it for good. Either way, the fly was just as dead.

That’s enough for this month. As always, if you would like to discuss this article or simply want to talk cows, do not hesitate to contact me at 775-385-7665 or rtbulls@frontier.com.