Deere + Company

Joseph John Shindelar

Merlyn D Bass

Henry William Suechting, Jr

Theodore Marion Barnes

A machine for rolling hay into cylindrical bales includes a mobile main frame with a rearwardly and upwardly swingable gate structure that raises to permit the discharge of a formed bale. An axially transverse finger type pickup is mounted on the lower end of the gate structure and raises the windrowed crop material as the machine advances to initially roll the crop material along the ground in advance of the pickup. A rear conveyor formed by a plurality of side by side belts trained around a roller on the axis of the pickup and another transverse roller above the pickup has an upwardly moving inner or forward run that engages the rear of the bale, the conveyor being swingable rearwardly to accommodate increasing bale size. A second belt type conveyor includes an axially transverse lower roller forwardly of the pickup and spaced above the ground so that the crop material passes beneath the forward conveyor. After a bale is rolled into a predetermined size by the pickup and the rear conveyor, it is engaged by the front conveyor, whereupon any increase in the bale size causes the bale to raise from the ground so that it is supported between the front and rear conveyors, whereby the bale is supported above the ground during the remainder of its formation.

Machine for rolling hay into cylindrical bales

A self-propelled forage harvester has a forward transversely elongated header that includes a plurality of row units mounted on the header frame for removing crop material from a plurality of rows as the machine advances and delivering it rearwardly to a transverse auger on the header, which converges the crop and delivers it rearwardly to the forage harvester through a central crop transfer opening in the header. Each row unit includes a supporting structure extending forwardly in cantilever fashion from the header frame and a pair of belt type gathering elements having opposite rearwardly moving inner runs with intermeshing projections that clamp the stalks of row planted crops to move the stalk rearwardly. A reciprocating cutter is mounted on the supporting structure below the forward intake ends of each pair of gathering elements and the rearward discharge end of each pair gathering elements is disposed directly under the auger to positively feed the butt of the severed stalk under the auger. The row units are laterally shiftable to accommodate different row spacings, and crop dividers are mounted on the row units and extend between adjacent row units, outer dividers being provided at the opposite sides of the header. A pair of upright, driven rollers are mounted at the rearward ends of the outer two dividers in front of the sides of the header frame to facilitate feeding of the crop past the front edges of the header sides, and an upper stalk control structure is mounted on the frame and includes a transverse member forwardly and above the auger for engaging the upper portion of upright stalks so that the stalks are fed under the auger.

Growing community of inventors

Ottumwa, IA, United States of America

Joseph John Shindelar