The Rural Voice, 1991-04, Page 26THE TRACTOR WRECKERS:
KEEPING AGRICULTURE MOVING
story and photos
by Jim Fitzgerald
Long before the term be-
came popular in our throw
away society (and maybe
even before he knew it him-
self), John Radford of
Londesboro was already an
environmentalist. Before
the three "Rs" — reduce,
reuse, and recycle — of
environmental clean-up and
preservation were even
thought of, Radford was
practicing recycling, and making good
money at it as well. Today, he and his
colleagues in the business are doing
agriculture a great service by keeping
used and older equipment in good
running condition and saving farmers
countless millions of dollars in capital
outlays for new equipment.
Radford, you see, is what is affec-
tionately know in agriculture as a
"tractor wrecker." He keeps old
A change in society's attitude has changed
the image of tractor wreckers: now, instead
of being looked upon as scavengers, they're
viewed as friendly recyclers, not only
keeping old machines going at a time of
economic downturn, but also preserving
the environment by saving valuable
renewable and non-renewable resources.
machines running in two ways. First,
he buys old tractors, carefully takes
them apart, saves most of the reusable
parts, and stores them until they are
required by a customer. The discarded
parts are then sent back to the steel
mills to be melted down. He also has
replacement parts custom made to
specifications to keep older machinery
in working order.
He started into the tractor wrecking
For Brenda and John Radford of Londesboro, the "tractor wrecking" business has
turned into a profitable way to make a living as well as providing a valuable service.
business in the mid 1960s
when he took two tractors
apart and made one whole
one, sold it, and kept the
leftover parts as spares.
"There was money in it and
there wasn't anybody at it,"
says Radford. In the past 25
years, he has seen his bus-
iness grow, increasing to
nine employees with a
tumover of $1.25 million a
year.
In his last fiscal year
that ended in February,
Radford's used parts bus-
iness was up 23 per cent, while his
new replacement parts business had
jumped 33 per cent. "When the econ-
omy gets worse, we get busier," says
Radford.
Unlike his dad Gordon, who
opened the dealership in 1956 selling
Oliver tractors and George White
threshing machines to local farmers,
John's customers today are spread
across North America. He's one of 20
Canadian members of the Intercom
Parts Locators and is hooked up by
phone to another grid of 300 Amer-
ican "wreckers." For a membership
fee of $125 a month, Radford can sell
a part to a farm dealer in Lubbock,
Texas or Watrous, Saskatchewan. If a
local farmer needs an out -of -stock part
for his 20 -year-old International,
Radford can go to the phone line,
search the continent for it, and have
the part back within a few days.
"I don't know what we did before
the fax machine," says Radford. "It
has saved us a fortune in phone bills
and cut down on misunderstandings
(on parts numbers)." With the growth
of overnight couriers, Radford can
have a part from his tiny hamlet in
central Huron County, usually over-
night, to anywhere in North America.
If he wanted to, Radford could also
use a satellite system that would con -
22 THE RURAL VOICE