A spreader tool for an agricultural machine, which includes an inlet into which material is passed from one or more further components of the agricultural machine and an outlet through which the material may be deposited from the machine. A sensing unit is positioned within the flow path of material deposited through the outlet and configured, in use, to measure an impact parameter indicative of a force and/or frequency of material deposited from the spreader tool and incident on a detection surface of the sensing unit, which may be used to determine the grain loss associated with the machine.

A residue distribution system includes a flow channel having a first lateral side and a second lateral side disposed. A spreader is positioned proximate a downstream end of the flow channel, and broadcasts the flow of the crop residue. A residue distributor is positioned within the flow channel and upstream of the spreader for directing the crop residue toward one of the first lateral side or the second lateral side of the flow channel to increase a mass of the crop residue that side of the spreader, whereby a discharge density of the crop residue on that side of the spreader is increased to overcome effects of a crosswind or an uphill side-slope on broadcast distribution of the crop residue.

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 seeds are carried axially of the rotor by a controlled airstream so that they move to an axial discharge location where a discharge fan is mounted. The angle of the discharge around the rotor axis can be changed to direct the seeds to the side of the combine away from a straw chopper, towards the guide fins of the tailboard of the chopper, or into the housing of the straw chopper.

A chopper arrangement for an agricultural harvester, having a housing and a plurality of rotatable knife rows in the housing. The chopper arrangement includes a counter knife arrangement including a first counter knife bank and a second counter knife bank downstream of the first counter knife bank. The counter knife arrangement is movable between an engaged position, in which the first and second counter knife banks at least partially overlap the plurality of rotatable knife rows, and a disengaged position, in which the first and second counter knife banks are retracted away from the plurality of rotatable knife rows. The counter knife arrangement also includes a mechanical linkage coupling the first counter knife bank to the second counter knife bank to provide for simultaneous movement of the first and second counter knife banks upon actuation of the counter knife arrangement between the engaged and disengaged positions.

An agricultural harvester includes a chassis, and a residue handling system that receives a chaff flow and a residue flow into a flow passageway of the chassis. The residue handling system includes a chopper, a shroud at least partially surrounding the chopper, a spreader, and a moveable door panel assembly that is configured to be moved between a chopping mode position and a bypass mode position. The moveable door panel assembly includes a top door panel that is movably mounted to the top wall of the chassis, and a bottom door panel that is moveably mounted to the shroud. In the chopping mode position, the top and bottom door panels are positioned to permit the entrance of residue flow into the chopper. In the bypass mode position, the top and bottom door panels are positioned to either limit or substantially prevent the entrance of residue flow into the chopper.

An agricultural harvester includes a straw hood having a hollow interior space for receiving material other than grain (MOG) from a threshing and separating system of the harvester and chaff from a cleaning system of the harvester. A drive system is provided for powering a straw chopper and a weed seed mill. The drive system includes a single belt positioned outside of the straw hood that is wound at least partially around (i) a straw chopper pulley that powers the straw chopper, (ii) a weed seed mill pulley that powers the weed seed mill, and (iii) a power take off shaft of the harvester that receives power from an engine or other power source of the harvester.

An embodiment includes a combine having a grain sample sensor for detecting frequencies of impacts of separated grain on the grain sample sensor, a grain loss sensor for detecting frequencies of impacts of residue and lost grain on the grain loss sensor, and a controller. The controller is configured to receive, from the grain sample sensor, the frequencies of the impacts of the separated grain, receive, from the grain loss sensor, the frequencies of the impacts of the residue and the lost grain, set a detection frequency band based on the frequencies of the impacts of the separated grain, filter the frequencies of the impacts of the residue and the lost grain based on the detection frequency band, determine, from the filtered frequencies, grain loss information, and indicate the grain loss information to an operator of the combine, or control the combine based on the grain loss information.

An embodiment includes a combine having a feeder housing for receiving harvested crop, a separating system for threshing the harvested crop to separate grain from residue, a residue spreader wheel spinning for expelling the residue from the combine, and a controller that controls the combine. The controller is configured to control the residue spreader wheel to continuously oscillate between a first speed less than a nominal speed and a second speed greater than the nominal speed while spreading the residue.

An agricultural harvester including a harvester component and an actuator configured to move the harvester component between a first position and a second position within a harvester component movement zone positioned adjacent to the agricultural harvester. Furthermore, the agricultural harvester includes an imaging device configured to capture image data depicting the harvester component movement zone. Additionally, the agricultural harvester includes a computing system configured to receive the image data captured by the imaging device. Moreover, the computing system is configured to determine when an object is present within the harvester component movement zone based on the received image data. In addition, when it is determined that the object is present within the harvester component movement zone, the computing system is configured to control an operation of the actuator such that contact between the harvester component and the object is prevented.

An agricultural harvester includes a straw hood has a top wall and side walls. The walls define a hollow interior space for receiving straw or material other than grain from a threshing and separating system of the harvester and chaff from a cleaning system of the harvester. A drive system is at least partially positioned within the hollow interior space. The drive system is configured to drive a seed mill that is connected to the agricultural harvester.