A grain harvesting articulated combine includes of a crop processing power unit (PPU), a rear grain cart, and an articulation joint that connects the PPU with the rear grain cart. The articulation joint includes a transverse drawbar attached to the PPU about its rear, which has an aperture facing the rear grain cart and is located underneath the PPU forwardly of the rear of the powered PPU. An arcuate beam is attached to the rear of the powered PPU. A grain auger assembly runs from the PPU to the rear grain cart. The grain auger assembly has a forward end and a rear end and is formed from an outer tube and an inner tube rotatingly carried within the outer tube. A pin runs through the transverse drawbar aperture and a bracket aperture. A pair of articulation cylinders is affixed to the transverse drawbar and to the outer tube.

A method of calibrating a mass flow sensor while harvesting grain includes sensing an accumulated mass of a portion of grain within the grain tank with a first sensor. A mass flow rate sensor is calibrated based at least in part on a signal of the first sensor.

A harvester includes an auger tube having a first portion and a second portion adjacent the first portion, an auger flight within the first portion of the tube and terminating prior to the second portion to move grain to the second portion, a window along the second portion of the tube and a camera to capture images of grain within the second portion of the tube. A computing device determines grain mass flow based upon the captured images, a dimension of the second portion of the tube and a grain density factor.

A yield monitoring system is provided for an agricultural harvester. The yield monitoring system has an in-cab display and at least one configurable user defined window operable to display at least two previously collected parameters simultaneously and comparatively in graphical format. The at least two previously collected parameters include previously collected data from at least one yield monitoring sensor or vehicle sensor. The in-cab display may have a menu allowing the choice of paired data sources to be viewed simultaneously and comparatively. Data sources may include quantity of crop yielded, moisture content of crop yielded, rate of flow of crop through the agricultural harvester, protein content of crop yielded, ground speed, speed of operation of the grain elevator, and height of the header above the ground.

A harvesting machine capable of automatic adjustment, comprising a plurality of acoustic material flow sensors, a control system, a processor, and application software, wherein the plurality of acoustic material flow sensors are mounted internal to the harvesting machine at points of crop material flow and are capable of sensing an amount of crop material passing by them, wherein the control system is capable of adjusting a plurality of internal elements of the harvesting machine, wherein the software is hosted on the processor, and the processor is operatively coupled to the control system and the acoustic material flow sensors, wherein the software uses information sensed by the acoustic material flow sensors to determine if the internal elements of the harvesting machine are set for optimal machine performance, and the software sends commands to the internal elements of the harvesting machine in order to improve the machine performance.

A material flow sensor for a harvesting machine comprising an acoustic chamber comprising an impact plate and a housing, microphone, a pneumatic impulse line connecting the housing and the microphone, and an electronics module, wherein the housing is shaped so as to direct sound waves created by crop matter striking the impact plate into the pneumatic impulse line, wherein the sound waves move through the pneumatic impulse line into the microphone, which detects the sound waves and converts them into an electrical signal that is a representation of the sound power derived from the sound waves, which in turn is a representation of the mass of the crop matter striking the material flow sensor.

A system and method for conveying agricultural material in a harvester. One harvester includes a rotor which rotates to separate a plant into a first agricultural material and a second agricultural material. A grate is disposed vertically below the rotor and further separates the first and second agricultural materials from one another. A first conveyor receives the first and second agricultural material directly from a trailing end of the rotor and a trailing end of the grate.

Apparatus, systems and methods are provided for monitoring yield while harvesting grain.

One or more information maps are obtained by an agricultural work machine. The one or more information maps map one or more agricultural characteristic values at different geographic locations of a field. An in-situ sensor on the agricultural work machine senses an agricultural characteristic as the agricultural work machine moves through the field. A predictive map generator generates a predictive map that predicts a predictive agricultural characteristic at different locations in the field based on a relationship between the values in the one or more information maps and the agricultural characteristic sensed by the in-situ sensor. The predictive map can be output and used in automated machine control.

A sensor assembly for determining yield of grain harvested by a harvesting machine during harvesting operations. The sensor assembly includes a sensor housing, a displaceable sensor member and a displacement sensor. The sensor housing is mounted to the grain elevator housing above an upper sprocket of a conveyor disposed within the grain elevator housing. The sensor member is displaceably supported via the sensor housing within the elevator housing above the upper sprocket and along a direction of travel of the grain piles thrown by the conveyor flights rotating around the upper sprocket. The thrown grain piles produce a grain force on the sensor member causing a displacement of the sensor member in relation to the grain force. The displacement sensor generates a grain force signal corresponding to the displacement of the sensor member.