Abstract: An extractor is disclosed for a sugarcane harvester that chops stalks of sugarcane into billets. The extractor comprises a housing, a fan positioned within the housing and comprising fan blades mounted for rotation in a rotational path about an axis of rotation to induce a flow of air to extract leaf material from billets produced by the sugarcane harvester, and a leaf shredder positioned within the housing and comprising shredding knives fixed against rotation about the axis of rotation, the shredding knives offset axially from the fan blades relative to the axis of rotation in proximity to the rotational path of the fan blades such that the fan blades and the shredding knives cooperate to shred leaf material by shearing action as the fan blades rotate past the shredding knives about the axis of rotation.

Abstract: An extractor is disclosed for a sugarcane harvester that chops stalks of sugarcane into billets. The extractor comprises a fan and a leaf shredder. The fan comprises fan blades mounted for rotation about an axis of rotation to induce a flow of air to extract leaf material from billets produced by the sugarcane harvester. The leaf shredder comprises shredding knives mounted for rotation about the axis of rotation to shred leaf material prior to its ejection from the extractor. The leaf shredder is positioned below the fan or upstream from the fan relative to the flow of air.