Abstract: A tub for grinding livestock feed on a rotary cutter. The tub has a rotating circular sidewall and two spaced apart, inwardly facing, deflecting baffles that are pivotably mounted to the sidewall and pivoted in unison by an arcuate arm spring-biased to the sidewall. The arm may slide from a first position in which it can be held by a stop, to a second position upon release of the stop. When the arm is in first position, the baffles are held along the inner wall so as to free the center of the tub for top-loading livestock feed. Upon release of the stop, the arm is biased toward the second position where the baffles extend toward the center of the tub following the contour of the livestock diminishing in size as it is shredded by the rotary cutter. The baffles may have a spring-biased swingable lower portion that swings backward upon encountering obstacles in the tub.

Abstract: There is disclosed a rotary knife assembly for shredding straw. It includes a non-cylindrical driving shaft and a plurality of like knifing devices mounted in succession along the shaft, each device having a pair of generally flat shredding parts. Each such part comprises a central portion having a straight edge and radial teeth projecting from the central portion, the latter further having a notch located centrally of the straight edge, notch configured to seat radially over half of the shaft. The central portion also has a boss on one face forming an arcuate shoulder around the notch. The shredding parts of each device are held in coplanar position, when the straight edges meet, by a tube of which one end closely surrounds the shoulders of the bosses, which shoulders extend along a common circle. The same end of the tube abuts one face of the parts thus holding the parts in coplanar position and preventing them from separating along their straight edges.

Abstract: An apparatus for mixing materials for making animal feed, comprising a mixer including a pair of endless chains interconnected by parallel mixing members spaced from one another and forming a travelling endless conveyor. The chains are supported solely by two pairs of upper sprocket wheels, one of which is a driving pair. The length of the chains is selected so that the belt has a lower arcuate strand below the sprocket wheels and a substantially linear upper strand in between the sprocket wheels, the lower strand being longer than the upper one, both of these strands defining an inner mixing zone. The mixer is mounted in an open-top casing having an arcuate bottom beneath and adjacent to the lower strand and a linear strand between the sprocket wheels. A rotary lump breaking member is provided in the mixing zone close to an parallel to the mixing members, in front of a mixture discharge opening provided in the casing.

Abstract: A conveyor system for use with rotary screw conveyors located side by side has a mechanical arrangement allowing individually adjusting the speed of each conveyor. One end of each conveyor has driven teeth disposed in a circle and coaxial with the rotation axis of the conveyor. Each conveyor is rotated by a circular disk rotating about an axis normal to the axis of the conveyor and provided with driving teeth disposed in a circle on the disk and positioned to mesh with the driven teeth of the conveyor. The driving teeth of each disk are individually mounted so that they may be moved between a working position where they mesh with the companion conveyor driven teeth and a non-working position where they are retracted wholly within the disk. By thus retracting some of the disk teeth, the rotation of the companion conveyor may be step-like, thus controlling its conveying capacity.