AU2019101489A4 - A hay rake arrangement adapted to rake hay into a precursor configuration of lines of hay prior to raking said lines of hay into a windrow and a method of raking hay into a windrow - Google Patents

Abstract

A hay rake arrangement including a pair of rake arms configured as a generally inverted V shape, wherein one end of each rake arm of the pair of rake arms is orientated to an apex pushable through between a first line of initially cut hay and a second line of initially cut hay by a ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle, so each plurality of rake wheels uniformly distributed along the length of the front or outside of the respective pair of rake arms in the inverted V shaped configuration, are adapted to rake the first line of initially cut hay and the second line of initially cut hay into adjacent lines of initially cut hay on respective external sides of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.

Description

A HAY RAKE ARRANGEMENT ADAPTED TO RAKE HAY INTO A PRECURSOR CONFIGURATION OF LINES OF HAY PRIOR TO RAKING SAID LINES OF HAY INTO A WINDROW AND A METHOD OF RAKING HAY INTO A WINDROW

TECHNOLOGICAL FIELD

This invention relates to agricultural equipment that will assist in raking hay into long heaps of suitable quantities of hay prior to baling the hay into tight bales.

BACKGROUND ART DISCUSSION [001] Conventionally, after hay, Lucerne and other types of grasses have been mowed, the cut material must be turned over and raked into heaped piles or lines often called a windrow so as to facilitate the gathering thereof the hay into baling equipment in order to tightly bale the hay into a series of bales.

[002] The raking of hay also into these long heaps called windrows often prevents the hay from being blown around and fragmented which would make it then difficult for the baler to correctly bale the material as there is the necessity for the hay to be lined up accordingly ready for the baler to pass there over.

[003] Prior to the raking the hay into long heaped windrows of hay, machinery responsible for initially cutting the hay also works with a conditioner which is required to squish the stems and leaves of the hay so as to assist the extracting of nutrients from the hay when digested by livestock and also in some instances improve the amount of time and the consistency in drying the hay.

[004] The object of the initial cutting and conditioning of the hay prior to baling requires that this initial cut and conditioned hay is left in initial rows or lines to dry out.

[005] Once the drying is complete, conventional methods of raking the hay into the long heaps as introduced above called windrows, utilises a hay rake arrangement which consists for the most part of a pair of working rake arms which are extended out into an open shape V configuration with a plurality of rake wheels uniformly distributed on the inside of the V shape configuration so as to effectively rake up these initial lines of hay left to dry out after initial cutting and conditioning into long 68265 1

2019101489 29 Nov 2019 heaped rows of hay with adequate quantity for the baler to then pass there over to pack the hay into tight bales.

[006] However, some times the initial lines of hay that have resulted from the initial mowing and conditioning steps wherein the hay is left out to dry have inadequate spacings between the lines of initially cut hay left to dry which means often the tractor or other drivable agricultural machine which is pulling the rake arms that are extended out into the open V shaped configuration with the plurality of rake wheels on the inside, often has the wheels of the tractor riding on top of the lines of hay because the lines have just been cut too closely together.

[007] As the tractor wheels of the hay raking apparatus rides over the lines of initially cut hay, the now crushed hay often becomes compacted into the ground making it very difficult for the rake arrangement being pulled along behind the tractor to then appropriately be able to rake up the hay into the requisite windrow for subsequent baling.

[008] Still further, as discussed above prior to baling the hay must be raked into long heaps but these heaps of hay need to be of adequate quantity so as to be packed sufficiently tight and to be of the requisite weight and dimensions suitable for use as a bale of hay.

[009] In certain climatic seasons the return of the amount of harvested hay, Lucerne and other types of grasses can be significantly reduced by weather conditions such as drought and the like.

[010] Therefore, the amount of hay that is being mowed and conditioned and left in rows to dry out may in fact be of a reduced quantity because of these seasonal effects such that when adjacent lines of initially cut and conditioned hay is raked together for the purpose of baling, the quantity will be inadequate for the baler to be able to pack this reduced amount of hay into the appropriate bale.

[011] Accordingly there remains a requirement to be able to improve the overall hay rake arrangement of hay that has been initially cut and conditioned and left in rows to

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2019101489 29 Nov 2019 dry out, wherein those rows of hay left to dry out are either too close together for a drivable agricultural machine, such as a tractor, to drive through without compacting parts of the lines of hay and/or alternatively the lines of hay are of a quantity inadequate for suitable baling into tight bales of hay.

[012] Accordingly it is an object of this invention to provide a hay rake arrangement which will be able to rake the hay from initially mowed and conditioned lines of hay that have been left to dry out into a precursor of a line of hay prior to the raking of hay into a windrow, such that the ultimate raking of the hay into the windrow will be of a quantity of hay suitable for packing of the hay into tight bales by the baling arrangement.

[013] Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a complete reading of the following specification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [014] In one form of the invention there is provided a hay rake arrangement adapted to rake hay into a precursor configuration of lines of hay prior to raking hay into a windrow of hay, said hay rake arrangement including;

[015] a rake arrangement wherein the rake arrangement includes a pair of rake arms configured as an inverted V shape, wherein one end of each rake arm of the pair of rake arms is orientated to an apex of the inverted V shape, whereby the pair of rake arms when in use is pushable at a front of a drivable agricultural machine and wherein each rake arm of the pair of rake arms includes a plurality of rake wheels, wherein the plurality of rake wheels are uniformly distributed along an outside or front side of the inverted V shaped configuration of the pair of rake arms;

[016] such that when the apex of the inverted V shape of the pair of rake arms is pushed through between a first line of initially cut hay and a second line of initially cut hay by a ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle, each plurality of rake wheels uniformly distributed along the length of the front or outside of the respective pair of rake arms in the inverted V shaped configuration, is able to rake the first line of

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2019101489 29 Nov 2019 initially cut hay and the second line of initially cut hay into adjacent lines of initially cut hay on respective external sides of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.

[017] Hence the rake arrangement is able to establish a suitable quantity of hay on each of the respective sides of the ground engaging drivable agricultural machinery for a conventional hay rake arrangement to effectively rake and heap the combined lines of hay on the respective side of the drivable agricultural machine into a windrow suitable for baling.

[018] Advantageously, as the pair of rake arms is now at the front of the drivable agricultural machinery and the plurality of rake wheels uniformly distributed along the length of each of the rake arms are at the front or the outside of the inverted V shaped configuration of the pair of rake arms means that these initial lines of cut hay that have been left there to dry prior to raking into a windrow are in fact spread out into adjacent lines on either side of the drivable agricultural machinery so that firstly the drivable agricultural machine does not have its ground-engaging wheels compacting the initially cut lines of hay thereby making it difficult to subsequently rake up the compacted hay because as the apex of the pair of rake arms has entered in between the initially cut lines of hay it can spread the hay out beyond the wheels of the drivable agricultural machine to avoid contact.

[019] Also more advantages are achieved because the initial lines of hay can then be spread out and raked into adjacent lines of cut hay on either side of a drivable agricultural machine before actually then being raked into a windrow.

[020] Advantageously the ability to spread out those initially cut lines of hay into those initially cut lines of hay on adjacent sides of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle, is that two lines of initially cut hay can be brought together such that when these combined lines of initially cut hay on either side of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle are then raked utilising the conventional pair of working rake arms that are extended out into an open V configuration with the plurality of wheels uniformly distributed inside of the open V shaped configuration at the back of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle into a windrow with a quantity of hay suitable then for baling to take place thereafter.

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2019101489 29 Nov 2019 [021] In preference the hay rake arrangement includes a longitudinal main beam mountable to the front of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.

[022] In preference the longitudinal main beam mountable to the front end of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle includes a ground-engaging wheel or wheels.

[023] In preference each rake arm of the pair of rake arms of the rake arrangement are supported at a front end of the longitudinal main beam mounted to the front end of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.

[024] In preference the pair of rake arms of the rake arrangement are pivotally supported at a front end of the longitudinal main beam mounted to the front end of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.

[025] In preference each rake arm of the pair of rake arms includes a groundengaging wheel or wheels assisting in raising each rake arm of the pair of rake arms to an elevation to facilitate the plurality of rake wheels to rake the initially cut grass into adjacent lines of initially cut hay on respective external sides of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.

[026] In preference the hay rake arrangement further includes a V shaped configured pair of rake arms towable behind the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle wherein each rake arm of V shaped configured pair of rake arms towable behind the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle include a plurality of rake wheels uniformly distributed along an inside or internal length of each of rake arm of

V shaped configured pair of rake arms.

[027] Hence the use of the pair of V shaped configured rake arms towable behind the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle wherein each rake arm of the pair of

V shaped rake arms towable behind the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle include a plurality of rake wheels uniformly distributed along an inside or internal length of each of the rake arms of the pair of V shaped rake arms means the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle is also able to draw in the respective combined

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2019101489 29 Nov 2019 initially cut hay lines derived in part from the hay rake arrangement at the front of the drivable agricultural machine so as to draw in the combined initially cut lines of hay on the respective sides of the drivable agricultural machine into a windrow of a suitable heaped quantity of hay for subsequent baling.

[028] Advantageously, this invention would allow a single drivable agricultural machine such as a tractor to have at the front of the tractor the hay rake arrangement of this invention of the rake arrangement wherein the rake arrangement includes a pair of rake arms orientated generally as an inverted V shape which will spread out closely lined together initial cuts of hay so that they can be joined with adjacent initially cut lines of hay of either side of the tractor and the like that will result in combined lines of initially cut hay that will be of greater quantity so that when these combined lines of initially cut hay on the respective sides of the drivable agricultural machine then engage with V shaped configured pair of rake arms being towed along behind the tractor, ultimately means there will be the requisite quantity of heaped together hay in order for adequate baling into tight bales having appropriate weight and dimensions without any damage.

[029] In order now to describe the invention in greater detail a preferred embodiment will be described with the assistance of the following illustrations and accompanying text.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [030] Figure 1 is a top view of the hay rake arrangement adapted to rake hay into a precursor configuration of lines of hay prior to raking of hay into a windrow in a preferred embodiment of the invention.

[031] Figure 2 is a rear perspective view of the representation shown in Figure 1.

[032] Figure 3 is a rear and side view of the representation shown in Figure 1.

[033] Figure 4 is a front view of the representation shown in Figure 1.

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2019101489 29 Nov 2019 [034] Figure 5 is a schematic representation of a method of raking hay into a windrow utilising the hay rake arrangement in a preferred embodiment of this invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [035] Figures 1 to 4 shows the hay rake arrangement of this invention generally as (10) wherein as will be discussed in greater detail shortly hereafter, the hay rake arrangement (10) of this invention is adapted to rake hay into a precursor configuration of lines of hay prior to the raking of the hay into a windrow.

[036] The hay rake arrangement (10) includes a rake arrangement having a pair of rake arms (12) and (14) which could be best described when they are positioned at the front of a ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle such as a tractor as an inverted V shape wherein the ends (16) and (18) of the respective pair of rake arms (12) and (14) are orientated to a general apex shown as (20) in Figure 1.

[037] The pair of rake arms (12) and (14) are mounted to the longitudinal main beam (22) by way of the bracket arrangement (24).

[038] As best seen in Figure 3 the longitudinal main beam (22) mountable at one end shown generally as (27) to the tractor (not shown in Figure 3) includes groundengaging wheels (29) and wherein the pair of rake arms (12) and (14) also include corresponding ground-engaging wheels (30) and (32).

[039] Each of the rake arms (12) and (14) include a plurality of rake wheels (34) uniformly distributed there along the length of each of the respective rake arms (12) and (14) wherein notably the rake wheels are mounted on the front or outside of the rake arms (12) and (14) when the hay rake arrangement (10) has the pair of rake arms in the inverted V shaped configuration.

[040] The rake wheels (34) are mounted to the outside or forward side of each of rake arms (12) and (14) via a pivot mount arrangement shown as (40).

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2019101489 29 Nov 2019 [041] For an appreciation as to how the hay rake arrangement (10) operates, Figure 5 shows a ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle which in the preferred embodiment is a tractor (50).

[042] The tractor at the front end (52) has the longitudinal main beam (22) mounted by way of the bracket arrangement (54) to the front end (52) of the tractor (50).

[043] Features labelled (56) and (58) in Figure 5 are representative of initially cut material such as hay, Lucerne and other types of grasses, which have been mowed and conditioned to then be left in rows to dry out before they are raked into long heaps for suitable baling.

[044] As is illustrative from Figure 5, the front wheels (59) and the rear wheels (60) of the tractor (50) could both drive on top of the initially cut material (56) and (58) thereby inadvertently compacting that material in the rows (56) and (58) into the ground making it difficult thereafter to rake up effectively into a windrow.

[045] Still further, the accumulated material within the initially cut rows (56) and (58) may be inadequate even if combined together by a raking arrangement to have the requisite quantity of heaped material for a suitable windrow to form that will allow the packing of the hay into right bales.

[046] Arrow (61) is representative of the forward movement of the tractor (50) wherein the apex (20) at the respective ends (16) and (18) of rake arms (12) and (14) is able to move through the area referenced as (65) in between the initially cut material (56) and (58) whereby when the plurality of rake wheels (34) engage with the initially cut material (56) and (58) and as shown by way of arrows (69) rake the initially cut material in rows (56) and (58) to the corresponding adjacent rows (62) and (64) on either side of the tractor (50) wherein rows (62) and (64) are also representative of initially cut material that has been mowed and conditioned and left in rows for drying out.

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2019101489 29 Nov 2019 [047] However, as is illustrative in Figure 5, generally and representatively at location (70) effective the initially cut material of line (58) has been raked into the adjacent initially cut row of material (64) to form a combined row of material (72).

[048] On the other side of the tractor (50) the initially cut material (56) by way of being raked by the plurality of rake wheels (34) shown by way of arrow (69) at and beyond point (71) combines with the adjacent row of initially cut material (62) for a combined row of material referenced as (74).

[049] Advantageously, the tractor (50) and more importantly with the wheels (59) and (60) of the tractor (50) have not compacted against the initially cut material (56) and (58) as this material has been spread outwards into the adjacent rows of initially cut material (62) and (64) to form a combined row of material (72) and (74).

[050] The combined rows of material (72) and (74) are now of an adequate quantity to engage with the conventional hay rake shown as (80) which includes the V shape configured pair of rake arms (81) and (82) along with corresponding rake wheels (83) mounted uniformly along the length of the rake arms (81) and (82) of the conventional hay rake (80).

[051] In relation the activity of the conventional hay rake (80), it functions consistently with the known hay raking techniques but it is able to produce the appropriate windrow (90) for a baler to then pack this material into a tight bale because adequate quantity of material is being raked into the windrow (90) through the combination rows (72) and (74) which were derived initially from being able to divert the initially cut material in rows (56) and (58) into adjacent rows (62) and (64) on either side of the tractor (50) by way of the unique hay rake arrangement (10) of this invention.

Claims (7)

1. CLAIMS:

   1. A hay rake arrangement adapted to rake hay into a precursor configuration of lines of hay prior to raking hay into a windrow of hay, said hay rake arrangement including;

   a rake arrangement wherein the rake arrangement includes a pair of rake arms configured as an inverted V shape, wherein one end of each rake arm of the pair of rake arms is orientated to an apex of the inverted V shape, whereby the pair of rake arms when in use is pushable at a front of a drivable agricultural machine and wherein each rake arm of the pair of rake arms includes a plurality of rake wheels, wherein the plurality of rake wheels are uniformly distributed along an outside or front side of the inverted V shaped configuration of the pair of rake arms;

   such that when the apex of the inverted V shape of the pair of rake arms is pushed through between a first line of initially cut hay and a second line of initially cut hay by a ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle, each plurality of rake wheels uniformly distributed along the length of the front or outside of the respective pair of rake arms in the inverted V shaped configuration, are adapted to rake the first line of initially cut hay and the second line of initially cut hay into adjacent lines of initially cut hay on respective external sides of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.
2. 2. The hay rake arrangement of claim 1 including a longitudinal main beam mountable to the front of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.
3. 3. The hay rake arrangement of claim 2 wherein the longitudinal main beam mountable to the front end of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle includes a ground-engaging wheel or wheels.
4. 4. The hay rake arrangement of any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein each rake arm of the pair of rake arms of the rake arrangement are supported at a front end of the longitudinal main beam mounted to the front end of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.

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5. 5. The hay rake arrangement of claim 4 wherein the pair of rake arms of the rake arrangement are pivotally supported at a front end of the longitudinal main beam mounted to the front end of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.
6. 6. The hay rake arrangement of any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein each rake arm of the pair of rake arms includes a ground-engaging wheel or wheels assisting in raising each rake arm of the pair of rake arms to an elevation to facilitate the plurality of rake wheels to rake the initially cut grass into adjacent lines of initially cut hay on respective external sides of the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle.
7. 7. The hay rake arrangement of any one of claims 1 to 6 further including a V shaped configured pair of rake arms towable behind the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle wherein each rake arm of V shaped configured pair of rake arms towable behind the ground engaging drivable agriculture vehicle include a plurality of rake wheels uniformly distributed along an inside or internal length of each of rake arm of V shaped configured pair of rake arms.