The present invention relates to systems and methods for cutting plant material, and more particularly, sensors for testing the quality of the plant material as it is harvested.
A mower (or windrower or swather) is an agricultural machine configured to cut plant material growing in a field and deposit the cut plant material in windrows (or swaths) on the field to dry. An example mower is the Massey Ferguson WR9980 self-propelled mower. Once the cut plant material is properly dry, a baler is passed through the field to form the harvested material into bales. The cut plant material is then baled for easier transport, storage, and use. An example baler is the Massey Ferguson LB 2200 large square baler.
The quality of the hay has a large factor on the price that hay producers can charge for the product. Some hay quality parameters are “relative feed value” (RFV), a protein content value, a fiber content value, a “total digestible nutrient” (TDN) value, an “acid detergent fiber” (ADF) value, and a “neutral detergent fiber” (NDF) value. These factors influence the amount of revenue per acre a forage producer may receive. Often, buyers of premium forage, such as the dairy or export industries, require a minimum RFV score, and if the forage does not meet the premium market it is sold into other uses at a significantly reduced price.
It is known to test samples of the plant material in order to determine hay quality properties that are relevant to its sale or use value. Typically, such testing is done on the plant material after it has been baled. Once a number of bales have been created, a core sample is taken from one of the bales and sent to a third-party laboratory for, e.g., near-infrared (NIR) testing to determine these properties. Testing may also be performed during the baling process such as described in commonly assigned U.S. patent Ser. No. 17/758,055, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MORE ACCURATELY DETERMINING OVERALL QUALITY OF BALED PLANT MATERIAL. In an NIR testing system, light having wavelengths between 780 nm and 2500 nm is emitted by the instrument and then reflected by the plant material before being received back into the instrument; filtered and converted to a voltage or current; and then analyzed to determine the properties of the plant material.
While it is necessary to allow the cut crop to dry before baling, there is a reduction in quality parameters during this drying process. It would be desirable to be able to determine quality parameters at the time the plant material is cut by the mower so that drying and baling practices may be optimized to maintain favorable hay quality.
This background discussion is intended to provide information related to the present invention which is not necessarily prior art.
In one aspect, the invention is directed to a mower configured to cut plant material as the mower moves over a field and deposits the cut plant material on the field. The mower includes a header assembly having a cutter bed, conditioning rollers, and a swathboard, the swathboard being positionable to shape a rearwardly-directed stream of cut plant material into windrows. The header assembly includes a sensor system mounted on the swathboard. The sensor system has a sensor configured to collect nutrient information of the plant material being cut by the mower, where the sensor is moveable relative to the swathboard so as to move the orientation of a sensor face with respect to the crop stream.
This summary is not intended to identify essential features of the present invention, and is not intended to be used to limit the scope of the claims. These and other aspects of the present invention are described below in greater detail.
To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the figure number in which that element is first introduced.
The following detailed description of embodiments of the invention references the accompanying figures. The embodiments are intended to describe aspects of the invention in sufficient detail to enable those with ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention. Other embodiments may be utilized, and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the claims. The following description is, therefore, not limiting. The scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
In this description, references to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or “embodiments” mean that the feature or features referred to are included in at least one embodiment of the invention. Separate references to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” or “embodiments” in this description do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and are not mutually exclusive unless so stated. Specifically, a feature, component, action, step, etc. described in one embodiment may also be included in other embodiments but is not necessarily included. Thus, particular implementations of the present invention can include a variety of combinations and/or integrations of the embodiments described herein.
Referring to
The swathboard 110 is positionable to assist in directing the conditioned plant material back to the ground and shape the windrows (especially to have a generally wider width when the swathboard 110 is lowered for maximum contact with the flow of plant material). The forming shields 112 are positionable to further assist in directing the conditioned plant material back to the ground and shape the windrows (especially to have a generally narrower width when the swathboard 110 is raised to allow the flow of plant material to reach the forming shields 112). Thus, the cutter bed 106 cuts the plant material at a particular cut height, the conditioning rollers 108 condition the cut plant material, and the swathboard 110 and forming shields 112 direct the conditioned plant material back to the ground and shape the windrows. The cutter bed 106, the conditioning rollers 108, the swathboard 110 and the forming shields 112, except as discussed herein, may be of conventional design and are known to those skilled in the art, so need not be described in further detail.
Referring also to
The sensor 204 is positioned on the swathboard 110 to coincide with the location where the crop stream interacts with the swathboard. The quality and usefulness of the signal generated by the sensor 204 depends on the orientation of a crop-facing sensor face 212 of the sensor 204 relative to the crop stream passing through the header assembly 104, and the ideal orientation of the sensor 204 relative the crop stream may change during operation mower 102 depending on things like mass flow of the cut crop and position of the swathboard 110 and a crop-facing surface 214 of the swathboard 110.
The header assembly 104 may have a generally open, box-like framework 206. The framework 206 has pair of laterally extending end portions 208 that project outwardly beyond the conditioning rollers 108, with inner ends of the end portions 208 defining therebetween the boundary of a discharge opening 210 through which cut crop passes as it moves rearwardly in the header assembly 104.
The cutter bed 106 extends laterally in the form of a low profile, rotary style cutter bar located adjacent the front of the framework 206 for severing crop from the ground as the mower 102 moves across a field. As best seen in
It will be appreciated that the rotary cutters 302 are similar in construction. Each of the rotary cutters 302 may include a generally elliptical, metal knife carrier 304, and a pair of free-swinging knives 306 at opposite ends of the knife carrier 304, as well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art. As perhaps best shown in
In the illustrated embodiment, the header assembly 104 has a centrally disposed discharge opening 210 behind the cutter bed 106 that is shorter than a length of the cutter bed 106 and which serves as an inlet to the conditioning rollers 108 such that the internal six rotary cutters 302 may be described as a group of “inboard” cutters. On the other hand, the axes of rotation of the two outermost rotary cutters 302 on each side are all disposed outboard of the lateral limits of discharge opening 210 and outboard of conditioning rollers 108 such that those cutters may be described as “outboard” cutters. While the illustrated embodiment has two sets of outboard cutters, other embodiments may utilize only a single set of outboard cutters, or more than two sets.
Thus, it will be noted that the cutter bed 106 projects laterally outwardly beyond both ends of the discharge opening 210 to present left and right outboard cutter sections. The spur gears in the case are intermeshed in such a manner that the rotary cutters 302 of each outboard section rotate in the same direction, as indicated by the arrows in
Each pair of oppositely rotating rotary cutters 302 sends a rearwardly directed stream of severed material between the cooperating pair of rotary cutters 302 as illustrated by arrow 308 as the mower 102 moves through the field of standing crop. The outermost outboard rotary cutters 302 rotate in the same direction as the inwardly adjacent outboard rotary cutters 302, respectively. Thus, outermost outboard rotary cutter 302 on the left rotates in a clockwise direction viewing
The swathboard 110 has a lateral length that approximately equal to the width of the discharge opening 210. The sensor 204 is positioned laterally along the swathboard 110 to coincide with the location where one of the crop streams 308 interacts with the swathboard 110 as the crop material moves rearward through the discharge opening 210. In
The sensor system 202 is configured so that so that the sensor 204 is moveable relative to the swathboard 110 so that the orientation of the sensor face 212 with respect to the crop stream 308 can be changed to improve the quality and usefulness of the signal generated by the sensor 204. As perhaps, better seen in
In the embodiment illustrated in
It is believed that the sensor 204 provides best results when the crop-facing surface of the sensor is positioned such that the stream 308 of plant material blocks out most of the ambient light. When the swathboard 110 is in its full down position to maximize contact with the crop material such that the crop material is directed down to the ground, the sensor 204 generally performs well with the shoe plate 608 generally co-planer with the swathboard 110 in its base orientation. When the swathboard 110 is positioned in its full up position such that much of the crop flow avoids the swathboard 110 and is directed back to the forming shields 112, it is desirable to pivot the sensor 204 away from the base orientation to an extended position down into the crop flow stream 308 to obtain better readings from the sensor 204.
Although the invention has been described with reference to the one or more embodiments illustrated in the figures, it is understood that equivalents may be employed and substitutions made herein without departing from the scope of the invention as recited in the claims.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/435,859, filed Dec. 29, 2022, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63435859 | Dec 2022 | US |