Metering stack feeder and methods

Abstract

Apparatus and method for cutting and feeding a metered or controlled amount of foliage material from the stack, the apparatus comprising an underlying wheeled framework, capable of being displaced along the ground by a tractor or the like, a tiltable bed thereon disposed in a parallel position between the wheels and a powered conveyor so that a stack of foliage may be loaded onto the bed from a position on the ground (or unloaded from the bed back to the ground) and also may be successively advanced a short distance along the conveyor bed until the desired amount of stack foliage overhangs a transverse conveyor. A vertically or horizontally reciprocal cutting arm with a rotating disc blade at its distal end is cantilevered from a horizontally reciprocal rotatable vertical mast which is disposed alongside and extends over the transverse conveyor at the leading end of said framework and is thereby able to travel horizontally and vertically in a zig-zag pattern either top to bottom or bottom to top or both to successively cut arcuate strips of foliage from the overhang of the stack. Sliced foliage rolled off of a deflector shield and falls under force of gravity substantially continuously as it is cut onto the transverse foliage conveyor at the front of the vehicle and is discharged from the feeder.