How To Protect Your Farming Equipment From Rust

However, a lot of agricultural equipment is made of metal, and farming is a predominantly messy outdoor activity, making this a prime environment for rust damage. If a bit of precipitation doesn’t stop you, it shouldn’t stop your tools, either.

Consider some tips and strategies that will help you protect your farming equipment from rust and corrosion.

Utilize Proper Storage Techniques

How and where you store your equipment plays a huge role in preventing rust and corrosion from accumulating. The toolbox, shed, or shelter you place your equipment in should be, at the very least, dry, shaded, and well-ventilated.

If you’re struggling to find a place to store large machinery, fabric structures are much less expensive than constructing a new building with the necessary lighting and HVAC systems.

There are also quite a few environmental benefits associated with fabric buildings; for example, they use a lot less electricity, so you can save on your energy bill as a bonus. Additionally, if you’re struggling to keep moisture out of your toolbox, consider putting silica packets or charcoal inside to draw excess moisture away from your tools.

Rinse off Dirt and Chemicals

There’s very little you can do to keep dirt and chemicals off of your equipment, so don’t panic if your tools get exceptionally muddy or sprayed with pesticides. However, keep in mind that these elements can start to affect your equipment with regular exposure.

Technically, dirt doesn’t cause rust or corrosion, but it does affect protective coatings. Also, any chemicals left on for too long can eat away at the material.

As a cursory cleaning, you can hose off your equipment when you see gunk start to pile up. For a deeper clean, apply an alkaline detergent, allow it to sit—not dry—for about a minute, and rinse it off.

If your equipment still seems dirty, repeat the process, towel dry as much as you can, and let Mother Nature do the rest.

Add a Protective Coating

It’s very likely that your tools and machinery already come with a protective coating. Unfortunately, these coatings don’t last forever and can only act as a barrier from the elements for so long.

Adding a wax coating or an extra layer of paint can help your tools last a little longer, but not forever. If you want a protective barrier that will last for years, consider having your equipment galvanized by a professional.

Alternatively, there are many sprayable rust inhibitors designed for agricultural equipment that you can apply yourself.

Inspect Your Equipment

No matter how careful you are, your tools and machinery are going to get scratched, so fixing them is important. Regular inspections can help you catch problem areas, like deep scratches or gouges, before they become bigger issues.

Think of a scratch as a cut on your arm—the deeper it is, and the longer it goes untreated, the more likely it is that infection will occur. In the same way, a decent scratch makes your equipment vulnerable to corrosion, which can quickly spread.

The sooner you can catch and fix these scratches, the easier it is to protect your farming equipment from rust and corrosion.

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