WEED SEED DESTRUCTION

Abstract

Weed seeds are destroyed in the chaff from a combine harvester by primary and secondary destructors where the primary feeds to the secondary. The secondary can use 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 primary can also use an impact arrangement of a different and simplified structure or can use another destruction modality such as radiation. The primary is mounted at a transfer device including a transverse auger which carries the chaff and weed seeds from the rear of the sieve to the secondary

Claims

1. A combine harvester comprising: a separation system for separating from harvested crop a first material including straw and a second material including chaff and weed seeds; the separation system including at least one sieve at a rear end of which the second material is discharged; and a weed seed destructor apparatus comprising: a primary destructor arranged to receive the second material, the primary destructor having one or more components acting on the weed seeds so as to cause devitalization of at least some of the weed seeds so that they cannot germinate and discharge outlet for discharge of the second material after devitalization; a secondary destructor having a feed inlet arranged to receive the second material from the discharge outlet of the primary destructor, the secondary destructor having one or more components acting on the weed seeds so as to cause devitalization of at least some of the weed seeds so that they cannot germinate;

2. The combine harvester according to claim 1 wherein the components of the primary destructor are different from the components of the secondary destructor.

3. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the components of the primary destructor function differently from the components of the secondary destructor.

4. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the components of the primary destructor are different from the components of the second destructor so that a number of seeds devitalized in the primary is different from that in the secondary.

5. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the primary and secondary destructors use different devitalization modalities.

6. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 5 wherein one of the primary and secondary destructors uses a rotor and stator arrangement for generating multiple impacts on the weed seeds.

7. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 5 wherein one of the primary and secondary destructors uses radiation applied to the seeds.

8. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 1 wherein one of the primary and secondary destructors uses electromagnetic radiation applied to the seeds.

9. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the electromagnetic radiation includes heat and light.

10. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 1 wherein there is provided a transfer arrangement at the rear edge of the sieve arranged to transfer the second material to the secondary destructor and wherein the primary destructor is arranged in the transfer arrangement.

11. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 1 including a rotary transfer member arranged to carry the second material to and wherein the primary destructor is arranged at the rotary transfer member.

12. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 11 wherein the primary destructor uses radiation which is applied to the second material at the rotary transfer member.

13. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the transfer arrangement includes fan blade members at said respective ends of the rotary transfer member directing the second material into respective first and second destructor elements of the secondary destructor.

14. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the secondary destructor includes a rotor having an inner set of rotor elements and an outer ring of rotor elements and wherein the primary destructors include a rotor having an only inner set of rotor elements so that the primary provides fewer impacts on the weed seeds than the secondary.

15. A combine harvester comprising: a separation system for separating from harvested crop a first material including straw and a second material including chaff and weed seeds; the separation system including at least one sieve at a rear end of which the second material is discharged; a rotary transfer member arranged to carry the second material axially of the rotary transfer member and a weed seed destructor comprising: a primary destructor having one or more components acting on the weed seeds so as to cause devitalization of at least some of the weed seeds; a secondary destructor arranged to receive the second material from the primary destructor, the secondary destructor having one or more components acting on the weed seeds so as to cause devitalization; wherein the primary destructor is mounted at the rotary transfer member.

16. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 15 wherein the components of the primary destructor are different from the components of the secondary destructor so that a number of seeds devitalized in the primary is different from that in the secondary.

17. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 15 wherein the primary and secondary destructors use different devitalization modalities.

18. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 15 wherein the secondary destructor uses a rotor and stator arrangement for generating multiple impacts on the weed seeds.

19. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 15 wherein the primary destructor uses radiation applied to the seeds.

20. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 19 wherein the radiation includes heat and light.

21. The weed seed destructor apparatus according to claim 15 wherein the rotary transfer member is part of a transfer arrangement at the rear edge of the sieve arranged to transfer the second material and including fan blade members on the rotary transfer member for expelling the second material.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0110] One embodiment of the invention will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

[0111] FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a part of a combine harvester including an apparatus for destruction of weed seeds according to the present invention.

[0112] FIG. 2 is an isometric view of the apparatus for destruction of weed seeds of FIG. 1 showing one embodiment where the primary destructor uses radiation at the transfer arrangement.

[0113] FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view along the lines 3-3 of FIG. 2 showing the primary destructor of the first embodiment in the transfer member at the rear of the sieve.

[0114] FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view along the lines 4-4 of FIG. 2 showing the fan components which form part of the transfer arrangement carrying the material after the primary destructor of the first embodiment to the secondary destructor.

[0115] FIG. 5 is an isometric partly broken view of one end of the housing including one primary rotary mill and the duct leading from the primary mill to the secondary mill showing a second embodiment which uses an impact arrangement as the primary destructor.

[0116] FIG. 6 is an end elevational view of the housing and primary mill of the embodiment of FIG. 5.

[0117] FIG. 7 is an end elevational view of the primary and secondary mills of the second embodiment of FIGS. 5 and 6.

[0118] FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the secondary mill of FIG. 7 of the second embodiment.

[0119] In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0120] The apparatus herein is shown in FIG. 1 mounted on a combine harvester carried on ground wheels and including harvesting components of a conventional nature. This can include in some current embodiments a conventional separator with straw walkers with a threshing cylinder axis perpendicular to the direction of travel, in other embodiments using an axial separator with a rotor axis aligned with the direction of travel and in other embodiments using aligned threshing rotors perpendicular to the direction of travel. Other arrangements are also possible.

[0121] In most embodiments, the rearmost part of the separation system is the sieve which allows passage through of harvested seeds for collection and discharges chaff and discarded seeds including weed seeds to the rear edge of the sieve.

[0122] Thus the separation system including the threshing system and the cleaning system defined by the sieves operates for separating harvested crop into a first material comprising straw and a second material comprising chaff and weed seeds.

[0123] The combine harvester 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes a separating rotor prior to the location 11 feeding the straw onto a beater or internal straw chopper rotor 12 which completes a further and final separation before the first material containing the straw is discharged from the separation system at location 13 into a straw path 14 for passage to a discharge from the combine harvester.

[0124] The combine harvester as shown includes a chopper and discharge arrangement 15. The chopper thus comprises a housing 16 defined by a top wall 17, a bottom wall 18 and two end walls 19. The end walls 19 include attachment flanges 20 for attachment of the housing 17 to the outlet hood 21 of the combine harvester for discharge of straw and optionally chaff from the combine harvester into an inlet opening 22 of the housing 17. The bottom wall 18 defines a semi-cylindrical portion extending from the inlet 22 to an outlet 23 through which chopped straw and air is discharged at relatively high velocity for spreading across the field in a wide spread pattern.

[0125] Within the housing is mounted a hub 24 including a shaft 25 which is carried on suitable bearings for rotation about a hub axis 26 at a center of the housing. The shaft 25 can form a complete shaft body across the full width or it may be formed from stub shaft portions (not shown) attached to the hub 24 at each end. Blade members 27 carried by the hub 24 sweep around within the housing to entrap straw fed through the inlet 22 and to carry the straw and air past stationary blades 28 for chopping and for discharge through the outlet 23. The stationary blades 28 are mounted on the housing at a position approximately midway between the inlet 22 and the outlet 23 so that blade members 27 carried on the hub sweep between the stationary blades in a cutting action.

[0126] The chopper and spreading assembly 15 is arranged to be mounted at a rear straw discharge of the combine harvester and includes the housing 16, the rotor 24 mounted in the housing 16 for rotation around a generally horizontal axis 26 and carrying the plurality of chopper blades 27 for chopping the discharge material.

[0127] At the exit 23 is provided the material spreading assembly which can be the form of a tailboard 29 with guide fins 30 for receiving the chopped material and spreading the material to the rear and sides of the combine harvester.

[0128] The separation system of the combine harvester further includes one or more sieves 34 of well known construction where grain passes through for collection and chaff and weed seeds are discharged from the rear end 36 of the sieves at a discharge location 35.

[0129] In this embodiment a seed destructor is provided which includes two separate destructor elements 33 one on each side of the housing 15. Each destructor element comprises a primary mill component 31 and a secondary mill component 32 connected sequentially so that the primary element 31 acts on the chaff and weed seeds from the sieve in a first action and then the material is transferred to the secondary mill component 32 where a further milling action is carried out to complete the necessary operation on the weed seeds including seed impacts to devitalize the weed seeds.

[0130] Turning firstly to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, this embodiment uses as the second element or milling component 32 an impact system including a rotor and stator arrangement for generating multiple impacts on the weed seeds. An arrangement of this type is shown and described in the above cited published application US 2020/0296896 published Sep. 24 2020 by the present applicant. Further description is included hereinafter.

[0131] The primary destructor is of an arrangement wherein the components of the primary destructor are different from and function differently from the components of the secondary destructor. In this way, the components of the primary destructor are different from the components of the second destructor so that a number of seeds devitalized in the primary is different from that in the secondary. That is the primary and secondary may be selected so that they are complementary where one provides a first action on some of the seeds and the second provides a second action on others of the seeds so that a greater total of the seeds is devitalized.

[0132] In this embodiment, the primary and secondary destructors use different devitalization modalities. That is the primary destructor uses in this embodiment a modality other than seed impacts. Thus in this embodiment the primary destructor uses radiation applied to the seeds. This can simply be a source of electromagnetic radiation at a determined intensity and spectrum and wavelength. The electromagnetic radiation applied to the seeds can be visible light. The electromagnetic radiation in the embodiment shown includes heat and light which can be at a visible wavelength. However other modalities can be used including chemical materials. Also as described hereinafter, an impact system can be used.

[0133] As shown best in FIG. 2, there is provided a transfer system generally indicated at 35A to move the second material including the weed seeds from the second discharge location 35 from the sieve 34 to the primary destructors 31 of the weed seed destructor section before passing to the secondary destructors 32. The transfer system 35A comprises a transverse duct 36 which forms a channel at the rear of the sieve so that the material enters and open mouth of the duct 36 defined between a leading edge 37 of the duct 36 and a trailing edge 38 of the duct. The duct is part cylindrical so as to surround and contain an auger flight 39 on a shaft 40. The flight is separated at the middle so as to carry material from the center toward each end of the duct 36 as the auger flight rotates.

[0134] The housing or duct 36 for the auger flighting is designed so that the bottom of the housing is not tight to the auger flighting 39. The high speed of the auger flighting acts to drive any heavy objects, rocks or metal, into the void which thus acts as a rock trap allowing the auger to only move the lighter chaff to the ends.

[0135] The primary destructor arrangement comprises the two primary destructors 31 each cooperating with a respective part of the flight 39. The primary destructor sections 31 each include radiation emitting elements including a radiant heating element component 41 and a light emitting component 42 operated as shown in FIG. 3 by a control system 44. The heating element and the light emitting component are both mounted on the duct 36 at suitable locations. As shown the heating element 41 comprises a radiant heating element heated for example by resistive heating and is on the inside of the duct adjacent the leading surface 37. As shown the light emitting elements comprise a plurality of LEDs mounted through the wall forming the duct 36 at spaced positions along the duct 36. In the embodiment shown these are located adjacent the rear edge 38 of the duct.

[0136] In this way the chaff and weed seeds are dropped into the duct 36 though its open mouth and are carried along the duct toward the ends by the flight 39. As the chaff is very light, it tends to be opened up by and carried around the flight so that the material is fluffed up in the duct to expose all parts to the radiation as the material floats around the auger and moves toward the ends. This tends to expose the weed seeds at various locations within the chaff as the chaff turns, rolls and mixes within the flight.

[0137] The combination of the heating of the weed seeds in the chaff and the application of light to the weed seeds acts to devitalize the weed seeds as they travel along and within the transfer arrangement. It is known that the effects of the heat and light has different levels of devitalization depending on the characteristics of the seeds.

[0138] At each end of the flight 39 is provided the respective fan arrangement 45 located in a cylindrical housing 46. This is best shown in FIG. 4 and includes fan blades 47 driven by the shaft 40 of the auger. The shaft 40 is driven by a belt drive system 48 from the shaft 24 of the chopper 15 which is driven by a belt drive system 48A from the output drive shaft of the combine harvester.

[0139] The fan 45 shown in FIG. 4 comprises the plurality of fan flails 47 each fixed to a mounting plate 50 by bolts 49 and including a fan blade surface 51 so that rotation of the fan around its axis of the shaft 40 acts to drive the material from the sieve radially outwardly from the axis. The blades are fixed rather than pivotal to ensure that plugs of material are fed through which may not occur if the blades can pivot.

[0140] A housing 46 includes a discharge opening 52 in the peripheral wall connected to a transfer duct 53 defined by a tangential wall 54 and a wall 55 parallel to that wall. Thus the fan section 45 is defined by the fan blades so that air and the entrained material is directed outwardly into the transfer duct 53 for discharge of the feed material after the treatment by the heat and light, or other modality, causing the initial devitalization in the sections 31.

[0141] The ducts 53 extend along the outer face of the housing 16 of the chopper and discharge the second material after treatment through an opening in the end wall to enter at the secondary destructor 32 described hereinafter.

[0142] Turning now to the second embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 to 8, there is shown the arrangement which uses an impact modality for the primary destructor section. Thus on each side the destructor element 31 comprises a primary mill 60 and the secondary mill shown at 32 as described in detail hereinafter. The secondary components are positioned on the shaft 25 of the hub 24 at the respective ends.

[0143] The primary destructor 31 as shown in cross-section in FIG. 5 comprises a stator 61 around the same rotor 45 which acts as the fan in the first embodiment. The stator 61 is defined by the inside surface of the polygonal housing.

[0144] The rotor 45 comprises a plurality of rotor flails 47 each fixed to a mounting plate by bolts 49 and including the fan blade surface 51 so that rotation of the rotor around its axis of the shaft 40 acts to drive the material from the sieve radially outwardly from the axis. The blades are fixed rather than pivotal to ensure that plugs of material are fed through which may not occur if the blades can pivot.

[0145] The stator 61 is arranged at a location centrifugally outside the rotor 45 so that the material and discarded seeds thrown outwardly impact on the stator 61. The stator 61 also includes, as parts thereof, a series of stator surface elements 62 for engaging the discarded seeds in the accelerated material. The stator surface elements 62 are arranged such that the discarded seeds impact thereon and rebound therefrom back toward the rotor 45.

[0146] Thus the rotor 45 and stator 61 are arranged such that the discarded seeds rebound back and forth between the rotor 45 and the various parts of the stator 61 to provide a plurality of impacts on the feed material to destroy or devitalize some of the seeds.

[0147] As the air and entrained material passes outwardly after less than 360 degrees of rotation, the discarded seeds discharge from the rotor and do not pass or escape outwardly through the stator 61. That is, in the impact section, the various parts of the stator 61 substantially wholly surround the rotor 45 to prevent the seeds from escaping radially. That is all of the seeds are rebounded back inwardly to the rotor and move toward the outlet while rebounding back and forth until they pass out of the impact section through the discharge opening 52 into the transfer duct 53.

[0148] Thus the rotor 45 rotates around the axis so as to direct the discarded seeds centrifugally outwardly. The various parts of the stator 61 surround the axis so as to rebound the discarded seeds back toward the axis and the discharge opening 52 is arranged such that the discarded seeds discharge generally radially outwardly from within the stator 61. In this way, the feed material containing the discarded seeds enters the housing axially of the rotor 45 at the inner end face of the rotor and discharges radially from the bottom end of the rotor into the transfer duct 53.

[0149] As best shown in FIG. 5, each of the stator surface elements 62 comprises a generally V-shaped body, and more specifically, each stator surface element 62 carries as part of the stator surface element 63 two individual seed engaging surface portions in the form of respective walls 64 and 65 which converge to an apex 66 parallel to the axis and located outwardly of the surfaces 64 and 65. The surfaces lie at an angle to a tangent to the peripheral wall 61. The plurality of stator surface elements 62 is arranged so that the elements 62 are angularly spaced around the axis. As shown, there are four elements 62 over a region of the peripheral wall 61 generally opposite to the discharge opening 52 and thus representing the working area of the destructor where the material is impacted. It will be noted that the individual seed engaging surface portion 64, 65 against which the seeds are primarily directed as the rotor 45 turns counter clockwise is arranged at an angle to a tangent T of an imaginary cylindrical surface surrounding the axis. Thus the seed engaging surface portion 64 is inclined forwardly and inwardly so that the seeds moving with the rotor and outwardly of the rotor impact against the seed engaging surface portion 65 and are rebounded inwardly. The stator surface element 62 may be adjustable to change the level of aggression in the rebound action.

[0150] The elements 62 are formed from sheet metal bent at the apex 66. This forms the wall 65 into a long sheet which extends around the axis to the next element and defines the inside surface of the housing and thus the peripheral wall 61. The long sheet 67 includes an end receptacle 68 which engages around the surfaces 64, 65 of the next adjacent element.

[0151] The stator 61 has an overall cylindrical shape and there are four of the stator surface elements 62 at angularly spaced positions leaving the remainder of the inner surface of the stator housing 61 exposed to act as a further stator surface. This further stator surface surrounds the whole of the rotor apart from the discharge opening and hence prevents outward escape of any material, thus confining the material to move to the discharge opening 52 for ejection.

[0152] Each secondary destructor 32 as best shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 comprises a housing 73 with base 64 at or defined by the end wall 19 of the housing 16. The base 64 and a generally cylindrical outer surface 65 are covered by a cover panel 66 (FIG. 2) parallel to and spaced inwardly from the end wall 19. The end wall 19 of the housing is held stationary and includes an inlet 67 for feeding the second material from the transfer duct 53 onto a rotor 68 mounted on the shaft 25 of the hub 24. Around the shaft 25 is provided a plurality of pivot pins or bolts 69 each carrying a pair of flail blades 70. The flail blades extend from an inner end with a plurality of fingers extending into connection to the pin 69. An outer end of the flail blade 70 broadens in the axial direction of the axis of the hub 24 and terminates in an edge 71 lying in an imaginary cylindrical surface surrounding the axis. The flails can retract inwardly by pivotal movement in the event of impact with a larger object. Thus the blades 70 are pivotally mounted about an axis parallel to the rotor axis so as to act as flails. Also each of the rotor blades may include a sharpened cutting edge radial to the axis and a fan blade portion 70A generally axial of the axis. The fan blades 70 of the mill act to generate a significant air flow through the mill to the outlet 23 of the mill. The outlet 23 directs the outlet air onto the tailboard 29 and the fins 30 thereon to supplement the stream of air and straw from the blades 27 of the straw chopper. In this way the mills act in the same manner as the fan blade sections shown in the above cited U.S. Pat. No. 6,840,854 of Redekop. It will be appreciated therefore that the addition of the stator portions of the mill to the fan end sections of the straw chopper rotor enable the straw chopper to carry out both functions of straw chopping and milling the chaff together with the spreading of both materials. This provides a system of high efficiency with low numbers of moving parts to enable the construction of a device at lower cost.

[0153] Around the rotor is provided a stator formed by the inner surface of the housing 73 and a single stationary annular coaxial cylinder 74. The stator cylinder 74 is carried on the stationary end wall 66 so that they project axially into the rotor 68. The cover forces the weed seeds to contact the stator ring 74 and rotor 68 to be impacted thereby thus devitalizing the seed.

[0154] In operation, the rotor flails 70 act to suck chaff and weed seed into the mills through the inlet opening 67 in the cover and accelerate and direct the material across the inside surface of the inner stator ring 74 to impact, shear and force some of the material through the spaces between bars 75 of the ring 74. The outer edge 71 of the flail blade 70 thus acts to wipe the material cross the inside surface of the selected insert with the edge 71 having a height substantially matching the height of the bars.

[0155] The material sliding on the inner surface thus can escape through the inner stator ring 74 to the outer annular stator defined by the housing 73. Between the two stators 73 and 74 is an annular rotor 75 defined by ring 76 of posts 77 which are attached to a base plate of the rotor so as to rotate with the shaft 25 of the center hub 24 and with the flail blades 70 attached to the shaft. These posts 77 act to impact, accelerate and shear the material round the inside surface of the outer stator 73.

[0156] The arrangement herein thus provides one stator ring 74 comprising a plurality of stator bars 75 at angularly spaced positions around the axis of the rotor. Each stator bar 75 thus extends axially along the axis of the rotor and is spaced from a next adjacent stator bar to provide an axially extending space therebetween through which weed seeds can pass.

[0157] The construction and shape of the stator bars 75 is as shown in US published application US2020/0107502 published Apr. 9, 2020 by the present applicant.

[0158] The rotor shaft 24 and the transfer system 33 including the shaft 117 are both driven by a belt for receiving drive from an output shaft of the combine harvester so that there is a common drive from the combine harvester to the chopper rotor of the straw chopper section and the shaft 40 of the transfer system. Alternately the low power requirement for the transfer device 33 allows the device to be driven by a hydraulic motor to provide the simple command afforded by electro-hydraulic controls.

[0159] It will be noted from FIG. 1 that the transfer system 33 has an intake in front of a housing of the rotor of the chopper 15 with the housing 36 being mounted on or as part of the housing of the straw chopper rotor.

[0160] Thus the transfer system 33 includes the auger flight arrangement for moving the second material outwardly to one or both sides of the combine harvester to the primary destructors and transfer duct to convey the second material to the secondary rotor seed destruction section.

[0161] The weed seed destructor apparatus described herein thus comprises a separation system 11, 34 for separating from harvested crop a first material including straw and a second material including chaff and weed seeds. The weed seed destructor apparatus includes a primary destructor 31 arranged to receive the second material.

[0162] The secondary destructor 32 is arranged to receive the second material from the primary destructor and includes a secondary rotor 44 mounted for rotation about an axis and including rotor surfaces thereon for engaging and accelerating the second material.

[0163] The secondary stator defined by the inner surface of the housing 73 and the ring 74 is mounted for engaging the weed seeds to cause a plurality of impacts on the weed seeds between the secondary rotor 68 and the secondary stator.

[0164] The primary destructor 31 has a discharge outlet 52 connected to the transfer duct 53 which communicates to the feed inlet 67 of the secondary destructor.

[0165] The transfer duct 53 carries at least some of a discharge from the primary destructor so as to enters the feed inlet of the secondary destructor. It will be appreciated that in some cases a single primary may feed two or more secondaries so that only a part of the discharge is carried to a secondary.

[0166] The arrangement shown is particularly effective in that the secondary destructors 32 are mounted in the chopper housing 16 without significantly increasing the width of the structure. That is the chopper rotor remains of the same width as the straw path. Only the fans of the primary destructors 31 and the associated transfer ducts 53 are mounted outside the width of the chopper housing. Alternatively, the fans and primary destructors could be mounted in the same plane as the secondary destructor rotors so that only the transfer ducts 53 are outside the chopper width utilizing a narrow configuration and a small amount of space on the combine harvester.

[0167] Also the secondary weed seed destructors 32 generate an air flow volume and rate somewhat similar to that of the conventional fans of the conventional Redekop chopper (of the type shown in the abovementioned patent) so that the total volume of air generated and fed onto the tail board with the combined first and second materials for spreading is equal to or even greater than that of the conventional chopper.

[0168] The secondary destructors 32 are located in the separate sections at the ends of the chopper rotor so that they do not interfere with the conventional straw chopping action of the rotor.

[0169] The secondary destructors 32 are arranged to expel the second material into a secondary spreading device. In the embodiment shown this is the tailboard. However other arrangements may use a rotary spreading system. This can be used where the air flow is insufficient to generate the required spread such as where the straw chopping section is internal to the combine rather than the dedicated rear chopper shown.

[0170] In the embodiment shown, the shaft 24 driving the secondary destructors 32 is the shaft of the rear straw chopper so that the transfer system and primary destructor can be mounted in front of the chopper housing. However in an arrangement where there is no rear straw chopper, or there is no efficiency in mounting the secondary destructors 32 to the rear chopping rotor, the shaft mounting the secondary destructors 32 can be the shaft of the internal discharge beater of the combine. Again the secondary destructors 32 can be located with two end annular members on the shaft of the beater within the width of the combine housing. Also a single destructor can be mounted on the beater at one end in which case the secondary destructor may be outside the housing.

[0171] In yet another arrangement the secondary destructor or destructors 32 is mounted to the shaft of an internal straw chopper. In both these cases, again the second material can be collected by an auger and primary destructor arrangement but the transfer ducts extend forwardly to a location at the respective cross shaft within the combine.

[0172] In yet another arrangement the secondary destructor 32 is mounted to an independent cross shaft.

[0173] Since various modifications can be made in my invention as herein above described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claims without department from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.