Global Industrial – Deluxe Pallet Buster & Skid Breaker

Mar 22, 2024
By Farms.com

Photo Credit: Global Industrial

Break down pallets safely and easily

Braxten Breed
Farms.com Intern

Whether it’s storing fertilizer, seed, or whatever it may be, farmers may often accumulate pallets that are no longer required – taking up valuable space inside the barn or workshop.

So instead of improperly breaking them down or maybe even giving them away, have you ever thought about recycling the pallets and using the materials for future projects on the farm? The pallet buster can help farmers tackle these ugly, space-consuming, and unsafe pallets.

Global Industrial Deluxe Pallet Buster and Skid Breaker is a lightweight tool that can help farmers break down pallets quickly, safely, and easily.

The unique steel constructed dual pronged forks gives a farmer the ability to pull out nails with ease, while keeping the boards of the pallet undamaged. Creating materials for a farmer that can be incorporated in future projects on farm.

It can also be used when salvaging old barns, with one satisfied farmer saying, “Took an entire side off a medium sized barn in about an hour without destroying the tongue and groove. Started at the bottom and worked my way up.”

The Pallet Buster weighs less than 15lbs (7 kilos) and is made of durable construction steel with a 1.5-inch (3.8 cm) handle, measuring 45 inches (1.15 metres) in length. It also comes with a one-year warranty.

For more information, watch this Pallet Buster and Skid Breaker video.

Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”