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 into contact with stator bars at angularly spaced positions around the axis of the rotor. The stator bars are formed from bent sheet metal which are L-shaped or U-shaped in cross-section to define a first leg lying in a cylindrical surface surrounding the axis of the rotor and a second leg extending outwardly from the cylindrical surface connected to the first leg at an apex at a leading end of the first leg relative to the direction of rotation of the rotor. When U-shaped, the bars are symmetrical and can be reversed when the second leg is worn for extended life.

A combine harvester separates crop into straw and chaff and weed seeds using a sieve, a chopping rotor with a spreading device and at least one weed seed devitalization section. The components can be operated in a first mode where both the first material and said second material are directed to the chopper and a second mode the first material is directed to the chopper inlet and the second material is directed to the WSD. This can be effected by providing a guide wall which has a leading edge attached adjacent a rear edge of the sieve and extends rearwardly therefrom. The chopper and the WSD can also be moved to provide the change of modes. A construction of destructor mill with an outer stator on the housing is also disclosed along with a method of feeding the lost grain to the WSD.

The present invention relates to servicing a harvester discharge beater and, more particularly, to remove and install the discharge beater without disassembly inside the harvester.

The disclosure relates to a crop merger system for a harvester. The system includes a frame, first and second rollers mounted to the frame, and a belt disposed over the first and second rollers. The system includes a motor operably coupled to and configured to rotate the second roller. The system includes a controller configured to electronically receive as input a desired speed of the belt. The system includes a sensor configured to detect a measured characteristic associated with the crop merger system, and electronically transmit the measured characteristic to the controller. The controller is configured to determine a measured speed of the belt based on the measured characteristic, and if the desired speed and the measured speed are unequal, the controller is configured to regulate the motor to adjust a speed of the belt to be substantially equal to the desired speed.

A residue spreader for receiving crop residue from a residue chopper of a combine harvester and spreading crop residue onto the ground. The spreader includes a body having an inlet side and an outlet side, a plurality of outlet deflectors, each outlet deflector mounted on the body in juxtaposed position and configured to laterally deflect the crop residue between the inlet side and the outlet side, and a plurality of inlet deflectors, each inlet deflector pivotally mounted on the body in juxtaposed position and extending forwards from a respective pivot axis towards the inlet side and each configured to laterally deflect the crop residue between the inlet side and the outlet side upstream of the outlet deflectors.

A combine harvester includes a crop material sensor arrangement having a crop material sensor configured to monitor crop material downstream of a threshing and separating system of the combine, and having a sensor window through which the crop material sensor monitors the crop material. The sensor window is arranged adjacent to a flow path of the crop material such that crop material flows past the sensor window as it flows along the flow path, and the sensor window is arranged such that an angle is formed between a plane defined by the sensor window and a tangential projection that extends from a component of the combine harvester that influences the flow path immediately upstream of the sensor window. This ensures that the camera window remains sufficiently clean to allow the crop material sensor to monitor crop material through the window.

A controller for controlling a chopper arrangement of an agricultural harvester. The controller receives sensor data indicative of an intensity of chopping performed on crop material by the chopper arrangement, and sensor data indicative of a power consumption of the chopper arrangement. The controller has a processor to determine an actuator setting for a chopper arrangement actuator of the agricultural harvester in dependence on the received sensor data indicative of the intensity of chopping and the received sensor data indicative of the power consumption. The controller sends an actuator control signal to the chopper arrangement actuator to control the chopper arrangement actuator to operate in accordance with the associated determined actuator setting. The determined actuator setting includes an amount of insertion, and an angle of insertion, of at least one bank of counter knives of the chopper arrangement relative to rotatable knife rows of the chopper arrangement.

A method is provided for controlling a threshing system for an agricultural harvester. The method includes using a camera for obtaining images of a crop flow, processing the obtained images and controlling an operational setting of the threshing system. The images are obtained downstream of the threshing system, preferably somewhere between the threshing rotor or threshing drum and the residue spreader. The image processing aims at detecting grain ears in the obtained images, and to derive from those images at least one physical property of the detected grain ears. The operational setting of the threshing system are controlled in dependence of the derived at least one physical property.

Methods and systems for mapping the distribution of residue material in an environment in which one or more agricultural machines are operable. A sensing arrangement including one or more sensors mounted or otherwise coupled to an agricultural machine operating within the environment is used to obtain sensor data indicative of residue material spread by a spreader tool of the machine. A local distribution of material associated with the spreader tool is determined and used to update a map of a global distribution of the material across the environment. The map of the global distribution comprises one or more sub-regions categorized based on the local distribution dependent on material characteristics at those sub-regions.

Systems and methods for monitoring the distribution of residue material from a spreader tool of an agricultural machine. A sensing arrangement including one or more sensors, with the sensors defining a sensing region corresponding to an operating area of the spreader tool. A lighting arrangement including one or more light sources for illumination to at least part of the sensing region depending on a capture state of the one or more sensors of the sensing arrangement.