Systems and methods for crop stabilization and measurement

Abstract

Stabilizers of an agricultural header can be either, or both, displaceable and deformable in response to engagement with a portion of a crop, such as, for example, a stalk, in a manner that can assist in stabilizing the crop for at least purposes of determining a corresponding cross-sectional size of the crop. Characteristics relating to the displacement or the deformation of the stabilizers can be detected by one or more sensors and communicated to a controller to determine a measured size of the crop. Using the measured size, the controller can determine if the size of the crop corresponds to a current size of a width between deck plates of the header. If the measured size indicates the width is to be adjusted, the controller can selectively operate an actuator that is coupled to at least one of the deck plates to displace at least one deck plate.