Abstract: An apparatus for harvesting crop parts from a standing crop and leaving stripped stems in the field has a crop stripping rotor under a hood. Grain strikes the underside of the hood, and four or more piezoelectric impact detectors detect the pattern of grain strike density on the hood. Front end grain losses are found, based on the pattern of grain strikes on the underside of the hood. The hood position is adjusted by a ram in response to data measured by the detectors.

Abstract: Apparatus for harvesting required crop parts from standing crop, leaving stripped stems in the field, comprises a crop stripping rotor under a hood. A plurality of outwardly projecting crop stripping elements are mounted on the rotor and move upwardly and rearwardly as the apparatus moves forwardly into the crop. The distal tips of the elements enter the crop and move upwardly through the crop, gathering one or more crop stems. Between adjacent crop stripping elements two succeeding relief regions are provided. Gathered crop enters the first relief region and required parts are stripped by edges of the relief region. Stripped stems pass to the second relief region for easy release and in order to avoid rejecting unstripped stems from the first relief region.