Abstract: A mower with two pairs of counterrotating cutting disks has a frame on which two yokes are mounted for independent swinging about a horizontal axis transverse to the direction of travel, each yoke carrying a pair of coacting horizontal conditioning rollers which in a working position lie in the wake of a respective disk pair to gather and press the mown crop coming from these disks. The conditioning rollers are driven from a pair of ancillary shafts on the machine frame, operatively linked with the disk drive, through extensible and universally jointed transmission shafts enabling each yoke to be separately swung into a retracted position.

Abstract: A drive system for a field chopper in which a belt and friction wheel transmission operates the blade drum or cutter reel and is driven from a speed-reducing and distribution drive having a number of output shafts which operate the pickup and intake elements of the harvester.

Abstract: A spring tine assembly for agricultural machines has prongs extending from a coil spring in a direction substantially perpendicular to the coil axis. An elastic retainer bridging the prongs or crop-engaging tines forms a passage for each of the prongs and is depressed thereagainst by clamping means, e.g. bolts. The assembly is useful for agricultural machines and, more particularly, for haymaking machines.

Abstract: A field chopper, having a chopper drum or reel rotatable on the chassis and a plurality of feed rollers for advancing the crop material to the chopper drum, is provided with a pair of arms flanking the drum and swingable about the axis thereof. The arms each carry a pivotal compensating bar, a pair of pressing rollers being journaled on these arms and being driven by gears meshing with a central pinion whose shaft forms the axis of one of the bars and is, in turn, driven by a transmission. The pressing roller proximal to the blade drum is received in notches in the compensating bars and is connected thereto so as to be easily releasable.

Abstract: A rotary mower has a cylindrical drum rotatable about its upright vertical axis and provided at its lower end with a downwardly and outwardly flared skirt provided on its lower side with radially projecting crop-cutting blades and on its upper side with crop-displacing ridges. A windrow-forming deflecting plate is fixed on the support of the mower adjacent the drum and has a lower edge parallel to the upper surface of the skirt and forming on juxtaposition of this lower edge with the leading edge of each of the crop-displacing ridges an outwardly open acute angle. The ridge may be pressed into the skirt or constituted as a bar secured to the top thereof and has a circularly arcuate leading edge that passes under the straight lower edge of the deflecting plate.

Abstract: A chopping apparatus has a housing on one side of which is provided a chopper reel rotatable in a forward direction for chopping and a reverse direction for sharpening, and on its other side with a fan rotatable in a reverse direction for discharging chopped crop supplied to it by a conveyor extending across the housing from the chopper. A transmission has a unidirectionally rotatable input shaft and a pair of mutually oppositely rotating and parallel output shafts. This transmission is secured to the fan side of the housing and the fan is directly carried on one of the output shafts. These output shafts are both exposed toward the chopper and either of them can be connected to the chopper drive by means of a universal-joint shaft having a snap coupling releasably connectable to either of the shafts for changing rotation direction of the reel independently of the fan.

Abstract: A harvesting machine having a plurality of vertically reciprocal shaking elements is provided at the top of each of these elements with a distributing plate that extends the full length of the shaking elements and is pivotal about an axis on this shaking element. Each of these distributing plates is oscillated about its respective axis so as to loosen up and order the straw lying on the shaking elements and at the same time to separate grain from them. The plates have sawtoothed upper edges and may be oscillated at a rate equal to three times the vertical reciprocation rate of the shaking elements.

Abstract: A row-crop harvester adapted to travel along the ground in a transport direction is provided with four crop sensors. One crop sensor is provided to one side and in front of the harvester and normally feels the edge of the crop in front of the harvester and generates an output that controls an automatic steering system which guides the harvester along this edge. Another sensor is provided at the back of the harvester on the other side from the front sensor and serves to feel the edge of the swath just cut. Another sensor in front of the cutter on the harvester detects a gap in the crop and serves to switch the automatic steering system over from the front sensor to the back sensor in case a gap appears in the crop so that the harvester will not swing back and forth to follow minor crop gaps. In addition another sensor is provided on the front of the harvester so that when it arrives at the end of the field the harvester is automatically stopped and can only be moved by manual takeover of the steering.

Abstract: A harvester has an apron on whose leading edge is provided a sickle bar. Immediately behind and parallel to this sickle bar there is provided a flexible tube having at its front edge a lip connected to the apron and at its rear edge a lip connected to a horizontally extending throw-off member. Inside the tube there is provided a pair of parallel metal strips which on, compression of the tube, close a circuit that generates a signal. This signal may be employed to warn the operator that a rock rests on the apron or may serve to stop the mower and/or reverse the crop feeder. In addition an automatic flipper is provided to pivot the throw-off member secured to the rear lip of the tube so as to automatically to flip the picked-up foreign body off the apron.

Abstract: An apparatus for turning a compost silo has a portal frame adapted to travel along the ground in a travel direction and a pair of side portions spaced sufficiently apart transverse to the direction to straddle the silo. A pair of oppositely handed augers extending transverse to the travel direction between the side portions are rotatable to turn the silo. At each end this double auger is connected to the output of a respective angle drive having an input directed forwardly and connectable via a rod to the power takeoff of a tractor in front of and to one side of the frame relative to the travel direction. A tow bar has a rear end pivoted on the frame midway between the side portions and a front end connectable to the hitch of the tractor. Thus, this apparatus may follow the tractor to either side of the tractor.

Abstract: A haying machine has a plurality of rotary rakes spaced apart transverse to its travel direction. Each rake has a plurality of tines extending through a housing rotatable about an upright axis and each having an inner end secured in a ball rotatable about an element nonrotatable in the housing but axially displaceable therein. The times each have an upper section about which they may be twisted by cam action, and a lower section that normally extends at a right angle to the ground. When the element in which the balls are carried is lifted all the way up control arms on the rake elements ride a cam to orient these elements with respect to the ground with the orbits of adjacent rakes spaced from each other, and when this bearing plate is lowered the control arms are moved out of contact with the cams in the housing and the rake elements are lifted so as to define an orbit of larger diameter that overlaps with the orbit of the neighboring rake.

Abstract: A harvester displaceable along the ground in a transport direction determined by a steering mechanism itself operated by a controller has a sensor formed of a pair of sensor arms pivotal on the harvester about pivot axes spaced apart transverse to the harvester transport direction. These arms are biased into a position extending normally toward and in line with each other and have inner ends which overlap so that displacement of the chassis of the harvester along the ground will bring crop into engagement with these arms and deflect them backwardly. Each of the arms is connected to a potentiometer and these potentiometers are wired in series such that as the one arm is deflected backwardly the resistance of its potentiometer increases and as the other arm is deflected backwardly the resistance of its potentiometer decreases.

Abstract: A harvester thresher has two sectional rollers, one between a straw-guiding drum and a set of vibrating straw racks, the other between a conveying platform and a sifter, to improve the separation of straw and grain. Each sectional roller consists of a plurality of polygonal plates, with corners offset by an angle in peripheral direction, vertically arranged and spaced apart on a rotating axle.