Abstract: An automatic corn cutting apparatus for cutting kernels off of husked ears of corn. The ears may be presented to the cutting knives either tip end or butt end first. The ears are fed into the cutting knives by a pair of drive rollers carried by a pair of articulating drive shafts. The drive shafts move in a plane perpendicular to the axis along which the ears are fed to the cutting knives. A sensor, preferably a linear variable differential transformer, or LVDT, is carried by one of the drive shafts remotely from the ears, i.e. the LVDT does not contact the ears. The sensor detects the profile of each ear of corn, and the profile is used by a knife controller to efficiently remove the kernels from each ear of corn.

Abstract: A forage harvester is provided with a cutterhead frame (34), mounted on a support (40) which can be pivoted about an cylindric beam (80) at the top thereof. The cutterhead frame (34) can be pivoted about the axis (39) of the cutterhead (36) under the action of hydraulic cylinders (90). Lower feedrolls (26, 27) are installed in a lower feeder frame (24), attached to the cutterhead frame (34), and upper feedrolls (20, 21) are installed in an upper feeder frame (18), which can be tilted forwardly about a cylindric beam (67) attached to the front of the lower feeder frame (24). A coupling arrangement (61, 62) for the coupling of a crop collecting apparatus (10) also serves to support the upper feeder frame (18), when the latter is separated from the lower feeder frame (24). This arrangement (61, 62) enables the attachment of the upper feeder frame (18) to a tractor (110). Thus can be gained access for inspection and servicing between the upper (20, 21) and lower feedrolls (26, 27) and to the cutterhead (36).