Weed seeds are destroyed in the chaff from a combine harvester by repeated high speed impacts caused by a rotor mounted in one of a pair of side by side housings which accelerate the discarded seeds in a direction centrifugally away from the rotor onto a stator including angularly adjustable stator surfaces around the axis. Thus the discarded seeds rebound back and forth between the rotor and the stator to provide a plurality of impacts. The destructor is mounted on a suitable drive shaft within the straw path and the chaff and weed seed material is carried from the rear end of the sieve to the destructor on the straw chopper by one or more fans driving the material through a transfer duct.

Weed seeds are destroyed in the chaff from a combine harvester by repeated high speed impacts caused by a rotor mounted in one of a pair of side by side housings which accelerate the discarded seeds in a direction centrifugally away from the rotor onto a stator including angularly adjustable stator surfaces around the axis. Thus the discarded seeds rebound back and forth between the rotor and the stator to provide a plurality of impacts. The destructor is mounted on a suitable drive shaft within the straw path and the chaff and weed seed material is carried from the rear end of the sieve to the destructor on the straw chopper by one or more fans driving the material through a transfer duct.

A spreader for harvested crop residue is configured to be attached downstream of a straw chopper of a combine harvester and comprises two adjacently arranged throw blowers with paddles which are able to be set in rotation about one respective axis and in opposing directions to one another, as well as a guide arrangement for predetermining the spreading characteristic of the throw blowers, said guide arrangement having a front tip penetrating the interstice between the throw blowers and two lateral guide elements which follow downstream and which in each case are adjacent to a throw blower and are adapted to the contour thereof. Extension means are connectable or connected to the guide arrangement, for selectively extending the guide device in the axial direction of the throw blowers.

Weed seeds are destroyed in the chaff from a combine harvester by repeated high speed impacts caused by a rotor mounted in one of a pair of side by side housings which accelerate the discarded seeds in a direction centrifugally away from the rotor onto a stator including angularly adjustable stator surfaces around the axis. The weed seed destructor is driven with a straw management system from an output shaft of the combine harvester so that the full power required for both passes through a belt which includes more than four longitudinally extending v-belt ribs and reinforcing cords located in a base band above the ribs at uniformly spaced positions across the width of the belt so that a replacement drive pulley on the output shaft has a width not significantly greater than a conventional output pulley which it replaces.

Weed seeds are destroyed in the chaff from a combine harvester by repeated high speed impacts caused by a rotor mounted in one of a pair of side by side housings which accelerate the discarded seeds in a direction centrifugally away from the rotor onto a stator including angularly adjustable stator surfaces around the axis. The weed seed destructor is driven with a straw management system from an output shaft of the combine harvester so that the full power required for both passes through a belt which includes more than four longitudinally extending v-belt ribs and reinforcing cords located in a base band above the ribs at uniformly spaced positions across the width of the belt so that a replacement drive pulley on the output shaft has a width not significantly greater than a conventional output pulley which it replaces.

An embodiment includes a combine including a sensor positioned to detect a physical characteristic of a windrow produced by the combine or an operational state of the combine, a windrow door for expelling the residue from the combine, a windrow door actuator coupled to the windrow door to position the windrow door at a windrow door angle, a windrow chute for receiving the expelled residue from the windrow door and guiding the residue into a windrow, a windrow chute actuator coupled to the windrow chute to position the windrow chute at a windrow chute angle, a controller configured to determine a physical characteristic of the windrow or the operational state of the combine based on an output of the sensor, and adjust at least one of the windrow door angle or the windrow chute angle based on the determined physical characteristic or operational state.

An agricultural combine including a residue processing system including a straw spreader and at least one chaff spreader. The at least one chaff spreader includes a first chaff accelerator and a second chaff accelerator so that, in operation, chaff particles are accelerated by the first chaff accelerator to an intermediate energy level after which the chaff particles are further accelerated by the second chaff accelerator to an ejection energy level. The second chaff accelerator includes grinding elements for grinding the chaff particles while accelerating them to the ejection energy level.

An apparatus and method for processing a crop residue, which includes but is not limited to, destroying weed seeds present in the crop residue. The apparatus (10) comprises an elongate housing (12) having an inlet (20) for receiving crop residue N and an outlet (22) for discharging the crop residue. The apparatus (10) also has one or more rotors (24), (26) located in the elongate housing (12). Each rotor (24), (26) comprises a plurality of radially extending impact members (28a), (28b), (28c), (28d), (28e), (28f) which rotate with the one or more rotors (24), (26) and impact against the crop residue, so that lighter material of the crop residue is subjected to less impacts and denser material of the crop residue is subjected to relatively more impacts.

An apparatus and method for processing a crop residue, which includes but is not limited to, destroying weed seeds present in the crop residue. The apparatus (10) comprises an elongate housing (12) having an inlet (20) for receiving crop residue N and an outlet (22) for discharging the crop residue. The apparatus (10) also has one or more rotors (24), (26) located in the elongate housing (12). Each rotor (24), (26) comprises a plurality of radially extending impact members (28a), (28b), (28c), (28d), (28e), (28f) which rotate with the one or more rotors (24), (26) and impact against the crop residue, so that lighter material of the crop residue is subjected to less impacts and denser material of the crop residue is subjected to relatively more impacts.

A weed seed devitalization arrangement for use with a. combine harvester, attached to the combine harvester, towed behind, or standalone. The weed seed devitalization arrangement receives weed seeds entrained in a. portion of the air and material previously discharged from a combine harvester or other crop/lawn cutung apparatus. The weed seed devitalization arrangement includes a roton'stator arrangement including but not necessarily excluding other elements, one or more stationary substantially circular array of weed seed impact members, the members being arranged so as to impact weed seeds being provided into the substantially circular array; and one or more rotatable substantially circular array of weed seed impact members, the rotatable array movable with respect to a stationary substantially circular array of weed seed impact members, the impact members of the rotatable substantially circular array arranged to impact weed seeds being directed through the rotatable substantially circular array. Another element may be a driven rotating clement at or near the central portion of the rotor/stator arrangement for receiving the portion of air and material discharged from the combine harvester entrained with weed seeds and for providing a flow of air and entrained material including weed seed into the arrays of the arrangement.