An agricultural implement for conditioning a crop comprises a plurality of beaters mounted for rotation about a common axis a cutter for cutting a crop, and mounting structure for mounting the beaters and cutter, during a cutting operation, in co-operating relationship such that the beaters engage crop cut by the cutter before said cut crop falls to the ground, and condition the crop. The cutter may be a horizontal reciprocatory cutter mounted across the line of travel of the implement, or may be a rotary drum, disc or like cutter. Transfer structure may vary the dispositions of the common axis of the beaters, the cutter and the frame of the implement between a first cutting disposition in which the mounting structure mounts the beaters in the co-operating relationship with the cutter, and a second non-cutting disposition in which said cutter is rendered ineffective to cut crop and the mounting structure mounts the beaters in a non co-operating relationship with the cutter such as to engage previously cut crop lying on the ground. The implement may be coupled to a forage harvester including a precision chopper for chopping crop conditioned by the beaters.
In a mowing device comprising a frame, cutting members supported by the frame and being movable in a horizontal plane and at least one rotor journalled in said frame so as to be rotatable about a rotary axis for transporting cut crop, said rotor comprising at least one support and at least one catch connected with the support so as to be pivotable about a pivotal axis and adapted to engage the crop, for maintaining the catch in its predetermined position the catch abuts against a stop, viewed in the direction of rotation of the rotor, whilst the center of gravity of the catch is located behind the radial plane going through the pivotal axis.
A crop cutting apparatus has two vertical axis rotary drum cutters 13, each having an upper rotor with a crop conveying surface 19 and a lower rotor carrying knives 21. Gears drive the upper and lower rotors at different angular velocities. The lower rotor has an annular rim 18 having an upper surface shaped to continue the outline of the conveying surface 19. The knives 21 protrude outwardly from beneath the rim 18 and rotate with the rim. A wiper brush 34 mounted on the conveying surface 19 projects outwardly over the rim 18 for lifting and transferring crop to the surface 19. The upper rotor may have conditioning brushes 35 for conveying crop and conditioning crop by relative movement between the brushes and the crop. The upper and lower rotors may be rotated in opposite senses to effect at least partial shear cutting.
An apparatus and method for the treatment of forage material and other agricultural plants by crushing and impact maceration. The apparatus includes a pair of rotatable, generally cylindrical crushing rollers and a rotatable impact rotor having outwardly extending projections such as fins. Forage material is first passed between the crushing rollers where force applied to the rollers flattens the tubular structure of the plant stem, splitting or creating longitudinal cracks and making the plant fiber more compliant and ribbon-like. Additional maceration occurs as the crushed material is next impacted by the impact rotor, resulting in further splitting and separation of the stems into ribbons. The resultant macerated forage material produced may be subsequently pressed into mats for accelerated field drying. The mats could then be harvested by either baling or chopping when the desired moisture content is achieved. Optionally the apparatus may be provided with a mower positioned forwardly of the crushing rollers to mow forage material in the field for feed or transport to the crushing rollers.
5111645 - Crop harvesting apparatus and methods - Owned by National Research Development Corporation (London,GB2) [*] Notice:The portion of the term of this patent subsequent to February 12, 2008 has been disclaimed.
In a row crop harvester a rotor 11 has rows of crop engaging elements 15 extending transversely across the direction of forward travel of the machine, the elements being aligned with the rows to be harvested. Each element has inwardly coverging side edges for gathering the crop of a row and for detaching required crop parts which are impelled in a high-speed stream upwardly and rearwardly over the rotor beneath a hood 18. At the junction of each inwardly coverging pair of edges a space 21 is provided for stripping crop and releasing stripped stems. Preferably the space 21 is a relief space having re-entrant edges 20 for stripping forwardly facing parts of the crop.
4991385 - Crop harvesting apparatus and methods - Owned by National Research Development Corporation (London,GB2) [*] Notice:The portion of the term of this patent subsequent to December 13, 2005 has been disclaimed.
In a row crop harvester a rotor 11 has rows of crop engaging elements 15 extending transversely across the direction of forward travel of the machine, the elements being aligned with the rows to be harvested. Each element has inwardly converging side edges for gathering the crop of a row and for detaching required crop parts which are impelled in a high-speed stream upwardly and rearwardly over the rotor beneath a hood 18. At the junction of each inwardly converging pair of edges a space 21 is provided for stripping crop and releasing stripped stems. Preferably the space 21 is a relief space having re-entrant edges 20 for stripping forwardly facing parts of the crop.
