Abstract: The invention provides a positioning apparatus (17) for a rotary combine harvester (100) having a threshing concave (6a) and a separation grate (6b). The apparatus (17) has a concave adjustor mechanism for adjusting a threshing gap between the threshing concave (6a) and a rotor or rotors (5) of the harvester (100). The concave adjustor mechanism has a concave actuator (33) including a concave hydraulic cylinder having an adjustable hydraulic pressure to cause rotation of a concave control arm (31) so as to control a position of the threshing concave (6a). The apparatus (17) also has a grate adjustor mechanism for adjusting a separation gap between the separation grate (6b) and the rotor or rotors (5) of the harvester (100). The grate actuator mechanism has a grate actuator (330) including a grate hydraulic cylinder having an adjustable hydraulic pressure to cause rotation of the grate control arm (310) so as to control a position of the separation grate (6b).

Abstract: A method for automatically controlling a harvesting parameter on a header of a combine harvester. The combine harvester includes the header, a feeder, and a downstream processing device. Crop is cut by the header, transferred to the feeder, and then transported to the processing device.

Abstract: A corn header includes a plurality of harvesting units to separate corn ears from corn stalks. Each harvesting unit has a deck plate assembly, and an actuator assembly to adjust a width of a stalk receiving channel by adjusting a position of at least a deck plate of the deck plate assembly. A kernel sensor can generate a signal representative of the presence of kernels detached from the ears during the separation of the corn ears from the corn stalks by the harvesting units and a control unit to receive the signal from the kernel sensor and generate an actuator control signal for controlling the actuator assemblies of the plurality of harvesting units, thereby controlling the width of the stalk receiving channels of the harvesting units.