CA2388715A1 - Method and apparatus for harvesting and cleaning grain and seed crops - Google Patents
Method and apparatus for harvesting and cleaning grain and seed crops Download PDFInfo
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- CA2388715A1 CA2388715A1 CA 2388715 CA2388715A CA2388715A1 CA 2388715 A1 CA2388715 A1 CA 2388715A1 CA 2388715 CA2388715 CA 2388715 CA 2388715 A CA2388715 A CA 2388715A CA 2388715 A1 CA2388715 A1 CA 2388715A1
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- mill
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- A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
- A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
- A01F—PROCESSING OF HARVESTED PRODUCE; HAY OR STRAW PRESSES; DEVICES FOR STORING AGRICULTURAL OR HORTICULTURAL PRODUCE
- A01F12/00—Parts or details of threshing apparatus
- A01F12/44—Grain cleaners; Grain separators
Abstract
The invention concerns a method of and apparatus for harvesting crops. One method involves harvesting from non-adjacent areas of land on which the crop is grown. The method comprises notionally dividing the areas of land into at least two groupings and for each region establishing a site for a cleaning mill for graff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, harvested from said land in said region by a mobile graff harvester, cleaning graff harvested from one of said notional regions in a mobile cleaning mill provided at the site established for that region, subsequently moving said mobile cleaning mill to a site established for another of said regions, and cleaning gram harvested by a mobile graff harvester from land in said other region in said mobile cleaning mill. The invention also relates to a mobile, self powered cleaning mill and a method of rethreshing clusters of grain and chaff within a cleaning mill.
Description
;i ~a lu,: J i i ~ I
a CA 02388715 2002-06-03 TTTLE: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HARVESTING AND
CLEANING GRAIN AND SEED CROPS
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to the harvesting of grain and seed crops of the kind that are conventionally harvested by means of a combine harvester. More particularly, the invention relates to systems, methods and apparatus for harvesting such crops.
i0 BACKGROUND ART
The applicant herein has already disclosed a novel method of and apparatus for harvesting grain and seed crops that provide an alternative to the use of 15 conventional combine harvesters. In this regard, reference is made to US
patent No.
5,794,423 issued on August 18, 1998; US patent No. 5,795,222 issued on February 23, 1999; and US patent No. 5,873,226 issued on February 23, 1999. Moreover, improvements to these methods and apparatus have been disclosed in Patent Cooperation Treaty application publication No. WO 00/76294 which was published 2o on December 21, 2001. All of these patents and applications have been assigned to McLeod Harvest Inc. and the inventions disclosed may be referred to collectively as "the McLeod harvesting system."
A conventional combine harvester operates by carrying out all of the harvesting steps in the field on a continuous basis. The crop plants are cut, the cut 25 plants are threshed to separate grain (or seeds such as peas, etc.), chaff and (inevitably) weed seeds from the stalks, the grain is then cleaned by separating it from the chaff and weed seeds, the grain is delivered to a waiting collection vehicle, and the stalks, chaff and weed seeds are returned to the field. The disadvantages of this are that (a) combine harvesters are very expensive to purchase and to operate;
30 (b) they are not very efficient at cleaning the grain, so some grain is lost and/or further grain cleaning is required; and (c) chaff and weed seeds are returned to the field, so that their economic value is lost and weeds proliferate.
,r~~~.,.."~.,r i The concept underlying the systems disclosed in the above patents is that, instead of attempting to carry out all of the harvesting steps in the field, only the step of threshing and removing stalks is carried out, and the remaining product (a mixture of grain, chaff and weed seeds - referred to by the coined word "graff') is collected and transported to a fixed grain cleaning site. The advantage of this is that the harvesting equipment may be less complicated and expensive than a conventional combine harvester, the cleaning of the grain may be carried out more efficiently at a fixed site, the economic value of the chaff and weed seeds may be realized, and the need for herbicides is reduced (because the weed seeds are to collected rather than being returned to the field).
While the McLeod harvesting system is proving to be highly effective and efficient, there is of course always room for improvement.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a system, method and apparatus for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the McLeod harvesting system.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of harvesting crops from non-adjacent areas of land on which the crop is grown, which comprises notionally dividing the areas of land into at least two groupings and for each grouping establishing a site for a cleaning mill for graff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, harvested from the land in each the grouping by a mobile graff harvester, cleaning graff harvested from one of the notional groupings in a mobile cleaning mill provided at the site established for that grouping, subsequently moving the mobile cleaning mill to a site established for another of the groupings, and cleaning graff harvested by a mobile graff harvester from land in the other grouping in the mobile cleaning mill.
In this method, each grouping is preferably determined by dividing the areas of land according to relative proximity of the areas.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of harvesting crops from an area of land on which the crop is grown and of ;~." E It creating output consisting of grain or millings, a mixture of chaff and weed seeds, at multiple locations, which method comprises providing a mobile cleaning mill for gram at a first site for producing outputs of grain and millings, and subsequently moving the cleaning mill to at least one other site and processing further graff as the at least one other site to produce the outputs at the at least one other site.
In a further aspect, the invention also provides a cleaning mill for graff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, comprising a graff receiving unit, a separating unit for separating grain from chaff and weed seeds in the gruff, an outlet for the separated grain, and an outlet for a mixture of the chaff and weed seeds, l0 wherein the mill incorporates a drive unit provided with a mobile source of power capable of operating the mill for cleaning the gruff, and transportation elements allowing the cleaning mill to be transported, the transportation elements being movable from a retracted position, permitting the mill to rest securely on a supporting surface, to an extended position in which the transportation elements support the cleaning mill and elevate the mill above the supporting surface to permit the transportation of the mill.
The transportation elements preferably comprise wheels, optionally arranged into wheel sets comprising more than one wheel. The mill also preferably comprises a towing hitch for attachment to a vehicle for towing the mill. The towing 2o hitch is preferably pivotable on the mill from an upwardly tilted position, in which the hitch is positioned during use of the mill, to a generally horizontal position, in which the hitch is position during towing, the hitch being movable between the positions by hydraulic cylinders.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided a 2s cleaning mill for gruff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, comprising a gruff receiving unit, conveying apparatus for conveying gruff from the receiving unit to a separation unit for separating grain in the gruff from chaff and weed seeds, an outlet for the separated grain, and an outlet for a mixture of the chaff and weed seeds, and including a collector for collecting unseparated clusters of grain and chaff that are 3o retained within the separation unit, a threshing unit for re-threshing the clusters and creating an output including separated grain and chaff, and delivery equipment for delivering the clusters to the threshing unit and for delivering the output from the threshing unit to the conveying apparatus for the graff.
It should be understood that the term "grain" as used herein is intended to include not only conventional grains, such as wheat, barley, rye, etc., but the seeds of crops such rapeseed, canola, peas, mustard, lentils, etc., i.e. the cleaned products of all plant crops that are conventionally harvested using combine harvesters.
Moreover, the coined word graff, as used herein, means a threshed crop harvest from which most or all of the stalks have been removed. Graff normally comprises largely chaff, grain, and weed seeds (as weeds are always present to some extent in harvested crops). Although in the McLeod harvesting system the harvested crop is subjected to vigorous threshing to separate stalks and to produce a graff product, the graff may contain unseparated clusters of chaff and grain, e.g.
partially or fully unthreshed ears or heads of the crop plants, as the threshing procedure may not always be fully effective to dislodge grain from other plant materials.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a diagram schematically representing a harvesting method and apparatus according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Figs. 2 to 6 are similar diagrams to Fig. 1 illustrating alternative embodiments of the present invention;
Fig. 7 is a cross-section of a cleaning mill prior to modification according to the present invention:
Fig. 8 is a side elevation of a cleaning mill according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 9 is a front elevation (from the right hand side of Fig. 8) of the cleaning mill of Fig. 8;
Fig. 10 is a partial cross-section of the grain separating unit of a cleaning mill (with parts removed for clarity of description) according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 11 is a perspective view (from the front and below) of the grain separating unit of Fig. 10 (with parts removed for clarity of description).
The McLeod harvesting system makes use of a mobile field unit or harvester to cut the crop, to thresh it, to remove stalks (which are returned to the field) and to collect the remainder of the crop (known as gruff). The gruff is then transferred from the harvester to a vehicle (e.g. a conventional haulage truck) and is delivered to a stationary cleaning mill where the grain is separated from the remainder of the threshed crop, generally a mixture of chaff and weed seeds, known as millings.
In PCT publication WO 00/76294 mentioned above, the concept is presented that the crop to be harvested and cleaned should be transported to the cleaning mill as fast as it can be harvested by the field unit or harvester (i.e. the system should be organized is in such a manner that the harvesting is the slowest step of the entire process so that it can be carried out substantially without interruption, while the other steps are faster so that the harvested gruff may be transported and processed as quickly as it becomes available without the need for gruff storage). To achieve this, it is stated that the stationary cleaning mill should be capable of quickly processing the gruff 2o and should ideally be located no more than a certain maximum distance (e.g.
about 6 km) away from the crop field undergoing harvesting, and that sufficient vehicles should be provided to ensure that collection of the gruff, delivery to the stationary mill and return can be accomplished without delaying the harvester.
Optionally, the distance is sufficient that only a single vehicle is needed to service the harvester and 25 the stationary cleaning mill without causing delay.
Until now, the intention has been to find a suitable fixed site for the cleaning mill that would be as close as possible to the areas) of land being harvested to optimize receipt of gruff from one or more harvesters working the land, and then to deliver or build a cleaning mill at that site on a permanent basis (at least for one 3o harvesting season). A suitable site would have a fixed supply of power, preferably mains electricity, to run the mill, grain bins to store the cleaned grain and a suitable place to pile the considerable amounts of material (millings) remaining ai~er the i,~~ ~i~~
cleaning of the graff. Often the stationary mill would be located in a farmers yard adjacent to farm buildings having a source of electricity to run the mill.
It has now been found, however, that locations for the cleaning mill considered ideal for the efficiency of operation of the harvesting system often do not have convenient sources of electricity or other power and, moreover, that greater convenience and efficiency can often be achieved if the mill can be moved without undue difficulty from one site to another at least once, and possibly many times, during a harvesting season. The present invention, in one of its aspects, therefore provides an improved way of operating the McLeod harvesting system utilizing a to mobile cleaning mill instead of a permanently installed stationary mill of the type previously disclosed.
It has now been realized that the ideal positioning of a cleaning mill is dependent on the following factors, provided in decreasing order of general importance (although this order may in some cases):
1. Distance from the area or areas of land to be harvested and/or convenience of access thereto.
2. Desired location for the creation of a millings pile (with adjacent firm flat land for support of the mill).
2o 3. Availability of bins or other containers for grain storage and access for transport of grain from the containers.
4. Availability of animals and an area for receiving the animals adjacent to the millings pile when the millings are used for animal feed.
The distance from and/or convenience of access to the area or areas of land to be harvested is still considered most important in order to ensure that the harvesting unit is not delayed by the time taken for graff collection vehicles) to deliver graff to the mill and return for refilling. However, since considerable quantities of millings are produced by the cleaning mill, it has proven to be important to find a location where a millings pile may be established and preferably used (for animal feed). Once a millings pile has been created, it is extremely difficult to move, so it is important to be able to create the pile where it is needed.
A farmer's yard is not always the most convenient place to create such a pile and a more remote area of a farm may be more suitable. However, there is a limit to the distance (normally about 200 feet) over which millings may be transferred from the cleaning mill to a suitable site for the pile using the material-conveying fan forming part of the mill, so the site for the mill and the millings pile usually must be chosen together. As the millings are a valuable feedstuff for animals, such as cattle and other ruminants, the pile is advantageously created close to an area where such animals are permanently held, or close to an area where animals may be temporarily brought in for feeding from the millings pile, such as an enclosed field not being used for other purposes.
Additionally, unless the cleaned grain or seeds are to be removed from the site immediately (e.g. by being delivered directly from the mill to a waiting vehicle), there must be storage bins or other containers at the site location.
Such bins are often permanent fixtures, so the availability of such bins is an important consideration. However, storage bins may sometimes be movable, in which case they can be positioned at the site of the cleaning mill without too much difficulty.
Often one bin is located close to the cleaning mill with others provided some distance away. The bin that is close to the mill is used for storing grain produced by the mill, and the stored grain may then be transferred to the more remote bins as the bin that is close to the mill fills up. Conventional means for moving grain from one bin to another may be used for this purpose.
Ideal locations determined according to these factors often do not have convenient sources of electricity or other power to operate the mill, so in the past, such locations may not have been chosen, resulting in a reduced operational efficiency of the harvesting system.
Moreover, it has been found that in many cases a farmer will have several areas to be harvested that are not immediately adjacent to eachother, or sometimes the equipment will be shared between two or more farmers having areas to be harvested that are not immediately adjacent. Consequently, there may be more than one ideal location for the cleaning mill determined according to the above factors, but in the past it has not be practical or economic to position a stationary cleaning mill permanently at each such location for the duration of a harvesting season or longer.
In the present invention, at least in one of its main aspects, the cleaning mill is made to be transportable and self powered for the graff cleaning operation.
It is not necessary, however, to make the cleaning mill self propelled and it is preferable that it be towable from place to place by a vehicle such as a tractor. In this way, the cleaning mill can be moved from site to site as required for maximum efficiency during a harvesting season or from one season to another. It is important to note that, in the McLeod harvesting system, it has been the intention in the past to 1o provide a permanent cleaning mill at each site, i.e. a mill permanently installed at a particular site for the duration of a harvesting season or beyond and to provide the mill with a fixed source of power for the cleaning operation, i.e. by connection to a pre-existing electrical supply.
The present invention, at least in on of its preferred forms, contemplates the establishment of a plurality of optimal sites determined according to the factors mentioned above, and then the movement of the cleaning mill from one site to another during a single harvesting season to maximize the effciency of the harvesting system. In essence, diverse areas of land are notionally divided up into groupings according to their relative proximity. That is to say, areas that are close 2o to eachother in terms of distance or ease of access or approach are considered to form a grouping that will supply harvested graff to a cleaning mill positioned at a site established for that particular grouping. Of course, in some cases a "grouping"
of land areas may consist of a single area of land, e.g. a single field.
According to this form of the invention, there will be at least two such groupings of land and at least two different cleaning mill sites, one for each group. A single mobile cleaning mill will then be positioned at the site for one of the groupings and the land of that grouping will be harvested by one or more mobile harvesters. One or more trucks will deliver harvested graff to the cleaning mill, which will then process the graff and store the resulting cleaned grain in a suitable container at the site, and will 3o create a millings pile at or adjacent to the site. Optionally, animals will be held adjacent to the site for feeding with the graff.
~, ;a I i Once the land of the first grouping has been harvested, the cleaning mill is moved to the site established for another land grouping and the process will be repeated. In this way, all the areas of land may be harvested in turn in the most efficient way using a minimum amount of equipment and the products (grain and millings) may be positioned at optimal locations. To some extent, therefore, the harvesters) and cleaning mill follow eachother so that a greater area may be serviced by a fixed amount of harvesting and cleaning apparatus.
In another form of the invention, the mill may serve only one grouping of land, and may be moved by a relatively short distance from one position to another to within the general location chosen for the cleaning mill. This may be desirable when, for example, more than one millings pile is to be created at different locations, or the cleaning mill must be moved from one set of fixed storage containers to another. As the cleaning mill has been made readily movable, it is easier to move the mill than to move storage containers or millings piles.
The following description explains these concepts in greater detail using examples of various possible groupings of harvesting areas and equipment.
According to Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings, a single farmer has several non-contiguous and non-adjacent areas to be harvested, i.e. fields 10, 12, 14 and 16. In this example, fields 10 and 12 lie in a valley and are connected by a road 20, whereas fields 14 and 16 are hilltop fields accessible via a steep and winding road 22. In this situation, the area to be harvested is divided into two notional groupings 26 and 28 indicated by dotted lines. For each grouping, a location is selected for the positioning of a cleaning mill. This location acts as a node (a point at which graff delivery routes from the various fields converge). For grouping 26, a location 30 is selected because it is a short, almost equal, distance from each of the fields 10 and 12 so that a harvester 32 can be serviced quickly by a single truck (not shown) whether harvesting field 10 or field 12. The location 30 is close to the valley road 20 and has flat land for receiving a cleaning mill 34, a collection of grain storage bins 36 and a free area for a millings pile 38. An adjacent field 40 can 3o be used for grazing animals, such as cattle, which may use the millings from pile 38 as a source of food.
lll~','; ; I I
In contrast, the grouping 28 is difficult to serve when the cleaning mill 34 is in location 30. The road 22 is too slow and winding for a graff delivery vehicle to make a round trip from field 14 or 16 in sufficient time to avoid harvesting delays when harvester 32 is working on these fields. Therefore, a second location 42 is identified for positioning the cleaning mill. This location 42 is also on flat land and has a collection 44 of grain bins and an area where a millings pile 46 may be established. In this case, when the harvester has finished harvesting fields 10 and 12, it is transported along road 22 to harvest fields 14 and 16. At the same time, the cleaning mill 34 is towed along road 22 and positioned at location 42, so that it is in l0 close proximity to the fields 14 and 16 for efficient grain harvesting. The grain in the collection of bins 44 may be removed by a vehicle, such as a truck, and either added to bins 36 or taken directly to the next point of a grain delivery system. At location 42, there are no animals to consume the millings pile 46, so it may be left unused or removed over time by truck to join the pile 38 or may be sold to other farmers who will remove it.
In this way, a single harvester and a single grain cleaning mill (and preferably a single truck) may be used to harvest a farm having fields in positions that would otherwise decrease the efficiency of the grain harvesting system operated with a single site for the cleaning operation. This is only made possible by providing a transportable cleaning mill having an independent power source for carrying out the cleaning operations of the mill (as there is no convenient power source, such as electricity, in location 42 at least).
Fig. 2 shows a situation in which two locations selected for the cleaning mill are quite close together. In this case, it is desired to create two millings piles 50 and 52 in different, but close, locations X and Y. When a cleaning mill 54 is employed that is movable and self powered, it is easier to move the cleaning mill from one location to another than it is to move a millings pile, once created. The mill 54 is shown in broken lines in location Y to illustrate the position to which it is moved once it has finished operation in location X. As noted earlier, there is a limit to the distance over which millings may be conveyed from the cleaning mill, so it is not possible merely to reposition a millings outlet pipe to create millings piles in different locations without moving the cleaning mill when this distance is exceeded.
'. ' '.I~~i9lrv_iiS H' Accordingly, the cleaning mill itself may be repositioned. Each site for the cleaning mill may be provided with a collection of storage bins 58, 60, with one bin being positioned close to the mill at each site for receipt of grain directly from the mill and the other bins located at a greater distance fox receipt of grain from the bin positioned close to the mill.
Fig. 3 again shows a situation in which two locations X aad Y selected for the cleaning mill 66 are quite close together. In this case, there are collections of grain bins 68, 70 at two different locations within a graff processing site.
The cleaning mill 66 may be positioned in a first location X to fill the first collection of l0 grain bins 68, and then moved to a second location Y to fill a second collection of bins 70. In this case, the bins are so positioned that the cleaning mill may transfer millings to a single millings pile 72 from both locations.
Fig. 4 shows a situation in which the owners of two farms 74 and 76 are sharing the harvesting equipment. Each farmer has provided a location X and Y
for the cleaning mill 78, a collection of grain bins 80, 82 and a millings pile 84, 86, and has an adjacent field 88, 90 for animals. A single harvester (not shown) and a single cleaning mill 78 may be used to harvest the fields of each farm in turn simply by moving the equipment from the first farm 74 to the second farm 76 once the harvesting of the first farm is complete. This arrangement is effective when the two 2o farms are too far from eachother to use a single fixed location for the cleaning mill and millings pile.
Fig. 5 shows an example in which there are three field areas 92, 94 and 96 each being harvested by separate harvesters 98, 100, 102. In this case, a single site X is chosen for two separate cleaning mills 104, 106. In this case, therefore, three harvesters are serviced by two cleaning mills. In general, multiple harvesters may be serviced by a smaller number of cleaning mills at a single site. While the cleaning mills are not moved in this illustration, the arrangement shows the flexibility of the harvesting system.
Fig. 6 shows a situation in which there are multiple farms 110, 112 and 114, 3o and just a single harvester 116 and a single cleaning mill 118. Both the harvester and cleaning mill are moved from farm to farm (as illustrated by broken lines) as harvesting and grain cleaning is completed.
In order to accommodate the required movements of the cleaning mill, the mill must be made transportable and independently powered for the cleaning operation. The cleaning mill of the present invention may operate for cleaning graff in essentially the same way as the cleaning mills disclosed in WO 00/76294, but it incorporates important modifications. To provide a basis for understanding the modifications of the present invention, the manner of operation of one of the cleaning mills of WO 00/76294 will first be briefly described in the following passages.
In the form of the cleaning mill 200 shown in Fig. 7 of the accompanying 1o drawings, a graff receiving unit 202 and a graff conveyor 204 allow graff to be deposited as a full load from a truck (not shown) by driving the truck into the receiving unit (when in a horizontal position), upending the truck box, dumping the graff load, and driving the truck out of the receiving unit. The receiving unit 202 is then raised to the position shown in Fig. 7 and the graff is delivered in a constant 15 stream to a laterally elongated upper inlet 206 of the cleaning mill by a slatted conveyor apparatus 208 moving along the surface of the floor of the graff conveyor 204.
The mill 200 contains a graff separating (screening) unit 210 incorporated into the main body 212 of the cleaning mill. As shown in simplified schematic form 20 in Fig. 7, upon entering the mill through entrance 206, the graff falls onto a grain pan 214 moving with a reciprocating action that tends to stratify the graff into components of different density and levels the graff into an even carpet 216.
The grain pan moves the graff forwards until it falls onto a cleaning shoe 218.
The cleaning shoe includes an upper chaffer screen 220 and a lower grain sieve 222 that 25 are reciprocated back and forth in an opposed motion. A short extension sieve 224 is also provided at the distant end of the chaffer screen 220. This can be adjusted independently of the chaffer screen, and can be raised at an angle to slow down the flow of material, if desired. As the graff passes through the shoe 218, large chaff, stalks, cut heads and stones are separated mainly by the chaffer screen 220 and then 3o intermediate contents (e.g. weed seeds, small chaff, stalk parts, etc.), are separated at the grain sieve 222. Essentially only grain 226 itself passes through the grain sieve 222 and falls to a collection pan 228 that has sloping front and rear walls directing the grain to a central trough 230 for removal by a cross auger 232 through a grain exit (not shown).
As the graff is separated into its components in this way, air is blown upwardly and outwardly through the shoe 118 as indicated by arrows A. This air flow suspends essentially all of the graff components except the grain and heavy objects such as stones. In fact, as the graffdrops onto the shoe 118 from the grain pan 114, it encounters a blast of air forceful enough to blow away essentially everything but clean grain kernels of the desired size (and heavy objects, such as stones). This reduces the amount of separation required to be carried out by the to shoe 118 itself. Both the suspended chaff and the heavy objects proceed to a cyclone separating unit 136. The suspended chaff is carried by the air flow, whereas the heavy objects are moved by the reciprocating action of the shoe sieves into the inlet 921 of the cyclone unit.
The airflow is created by a fan 240 positioned within the cleaning mill beneath the graff conveyor 204. The fan directs air into conduit 242 leading to the cleaning shoe 218, and eventually to a cyclone 248, but an adjustable diverter 244 is provided upstream of the shoe to direct a portion of the air into a bypass conduit 246 as indicated by arrows B. The air from the bypass 246 nevertheless also enters the cyclone unit 248 with the air that has passed through the cleaning shoe 218.
The 2o diverter allows the airflow A through the shoe to be made appropriate for cleaning the graff (designed to blow away everything below kernel removal) while still allowing a high rate of airflow through the cyclone unit 248.
The cyclone unit 248, by virtue of the spiral flow of air passing therethrough and the density of the suspended chaff, causes the suspended chaff to congregate around the inside wall 250 of the unit so that clean air that is substantially free of chaff and other solids may exit the unit through a central opening 252. The chaff, propelled by a further flow of air, exits a chaff delivery port 254 located at an outside lower region of the cyclone unit. The clean air is recirculated directly to the fan 240 via ducting (not shown), although a certain amount of clean air from the outside may be introduced into the recirculated air, e.g. through an elongated slot provided adjacent to the graff entrance 206, to replace air escaping with the chaff and to reduce the build-up of dust.
i~.,,i,j"..i:iiiij The solids exiting chaff delivery port 254 contain chaff proper, weed seeds, unthreshed heads, and small grain kernels. This mixture is conveyed through ducting to a high speed centrifugal material-conveying fan (not shown) provided with paddle-like blades. The fan has a hammering, impacting or chopping effect that reduces the size of large items and tends to crack, nick or crush weed seeds and small grain kernels (thus making them less liable to germinate). The material exiting the fan, now referred to as millings, is then conveyed through tubing (not shown) to a desired location where it is discharged to form an open pile of millings.
A more detailed description of the cleaning mill may be obtained from WO
00/76294, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
For the present invention, the mill as described above is modified in various ways as described with reference to Figs. 8 to 11 of the accompanying drawings.
Firstly, the mill 300 is preferably supported on a rigid frame 302 and is provided with tow sets 304 of freely-rotatable wheels (two wheels per set), or other transportation elements such as tracks, at each side of the mill approximately half way between the two longitudinal ends of the mill. The wheel sets 304 at each side are supported on elongated frame elements 306 that pmvide stub axles for the wheels at one end and have a pivotal connection 308 to the mill body at the other end. Hydraulic piston and cylinder assemblies 310 are pivotally attached at one end 2o to the wheel supporting end of the frame elements 306 and pivotally attached at the other end to the body of the mill. Actuation of the piston and cylinder assemblies allows the wheels to move from an extended position as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, to a retracted position with the wheels drawn up above the lower surface of the rigid frame 302. In this way, the mill can be raised up on the wheel sets as shown, so that the wheel sets support the cleaning mill and elevate the mill above the ground or other supporting surface 312, or alternatively the mill can be lowered onto the ground or supporting surface where the frame forms a stable base for the mill and allows the mill to rest securely on the supporting surface. In the former position, the mill is ready for transportation. In the latter position, the mill is resting securely on (desirably flat, firm) ground and is ready for use in a milling operation.
At the front of the mill, there is a towing hitch 320 for connection to a tractor or other vehicle (not shown) for towing the mill from one location to another. The hitch is pivoted to the rigid frame of the mill and is acted on by a piston and cylinder assembly that allows the hitch to be raised to an approximately vertical position, or lowered towards the ground. The hitch can therefore be raised when the mill is in use, and then lowered for connection with the draw bar or the 5 like of a vehicle in preparation for towing. The piston and cylinder assembly may be powerful enough to enable the hitch to engage the draw bar of the towing vehicle and then raise the front end of the mill, acting on the draw bar and pivoting the mill around the wheel sets after the wheel sets have been moved to their lower positions.
Despite the considerable weight and size of the mill, the illustrated 10 arrangement may be towed by a tractor or other powerful vehicle over roads or fields in order to transport the mill from one location to another.
The mill is provided with a motor having a portable source of power (e:g. a diesel or other fuel operated motor provided with a fuel tank for a supply of diesel fuel) and a hydraulic pump enclosed in a casing 326. The casing is pivoted to the 15 mill body at one end and may be swung out to a perpendicular position ready for use, thereby exposing a radiator of the motor for unobstructed air flow. The motor, which is operated when the mill has been towed to a suitable location, powers the hydraulic pump, which then operates all of the moving parts of the cleaning mill.
This is in contrast to the arrangement shown in WO 00/76294 where the various fans and driven elements are operated by electric motors (e.g. written pole motors) connected to a fixed source of power, e.g. electrical mains. Consequently, all of the fans and drive elements of the null of the present invention have been converted for hydraulic or hydrostatic operation so that they may be driven by the diesel engine-powered hydraulic pump. In this way, there is no need for a separate source of power, e.g. electricity, at the location where the mill is employed. The mill may be simply towed in place, lowered to the ground, and operated via the diesel motor.
Incidentally, the diesel motor also drives a small electric generator for powering the electronic controls of the mill, i.e. all equipment that has to be operated electrically rather than hydraulically.
The ready mobility and independence of operation of the mobile cleaning mill of the present invention allows the efficiency of the harvesting operation to be maximized in the ways indicated above.
The efficiency of the mill may be improved in yet a further way compared to the mill of WO 00/76294. It has been found that, during the operation of the mill shown in Figs. 7, clusters of chaff and grain, e.g. unthreshed parts of plant heads or ears, may pass through chaffer screen 220 but not through the lower grain sieve 222.
These clusters eventually fall off the distal end of the grain sieve and accumulate within the body of the mill. They have to be cleaned out periodically to prevent the creation of blockages. To overcome this problem, the mill has been modified in the manner shown in Figs. 10 and 11. As shown in Fig. 10, grain passing through the grain sieve 222 contacts a sloping pan 228 as before and is directed into channel 230 where it is removed from the cleaning mill by auger 232. In addition, a second pan surface 402 is provided to receive materials falling over the end of the grain sieve 222. The second pan surface 402 extends rearwardly and downwardly beneath the first pan surface 228 for the grain and directs materials to a second channel 404 provided with an auger 406 which removes the material from the mill body. As shown in Fig. 11, the material delivered by the auger is fed into a re-threshing unit 410 (e.g. a cylinder and concave of known design) where the grain and chaff are separated from the clusters, and the resulting mixture of grain and chaff is conveyed by an auger tube 412 to a paddle blower 414 that delivers the mixture to a cross-feeder 416 that feeds the material back to the reciprocating grain pan 214 for delivery once again to the cleaning shoe 218. In this way, the clusters are separated into grain and chaff and delivered to the separate outlets for these materials. This re-threshing of the cluster material prevents them from accumulating in the body of the cleaning mill and increases the yield of grain and millings delivered by the mill.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the specific description above relates to preferred embodiments of the invention and that modifications and variations will be possible without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
a CA 02388715 2002-06-03 TTTLE: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HARVESTING AND
CLEANING GRAIN AND SEED CROPS
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to the harvesting of grain and seed crops of the kind that are conventionally harvested by means of a combine harvester. More particularly, the invention relates to systems, methods and apparatus for harvesting such crops.
i0 BACKGROUND ART
The applicant herein has already disclosed a novel method of and apparatus for harvesting grain and seed crops that provide an alternative to the use of 15 conventional combine harvesters. In this regard, reference is made to US
patent No.
5,794,423 issued on August 18, 1998; US patent No. 5,795,222 issued on February 23, 1999; and US patent No. 5,873,226 issued on February 23, 1999. Moreover, improvements to these methods and apparatus have been disclosed in Patent Cooperation Treaty application publication No. WO 00/76294 which was published 2o on December 21, 2001. All of these patents and applications have been assigned to McLeod Harvest Inc. and the inventions disclosed may be referred to collectively as "the McLeod harvesting system."
A conventional combine harvester operates by carrying out all of the harvesting steps in the field on a continuous basis. The crop plants are cut, the cut 25 plants are threshed to separate grain (or seeds such as peas, etc.), chaff and (inevitably) weed seeds from the stalks, the grain is then cleaned by separating it from the chaff and weed seeds, the grain is delivered to a waiting collection vehicle, and the stalks, chaff and weed seeds are returned to the field. The disadvantages of this are that (a) combine harvesters are very expensive to purchase and to operate;
30 (b) they are not very efficient at cleaning the grain, so some grain is lost and/or further grain cleaning is required; and (c) chaff and weed seeds are returned to the field, so that their economic value is lost and weeds proliferate.
,r~~~.,.."~.,r i The concept underlying the systems disclosed in the above patents is that, instead of attempting to carry out all of the harvesting steps in the field, only the step of threshing and removing stalks is carried out, and the remaining product (a mixture of grain, chaff and weed seeds - referred to by the coined word "graff') is collected and transported to a fixed grain cleaning site. The advantage of this is that the harvesting equipment may be less complicated and expensive than a conventional combine harvester, the cleaning of the grain may be carried out more efficiently at a fixed site, the economic value of the chaff and weed seeds may be realized, and the need for herbicides is reduced (because the weed seeds are to collected rather than being returned to the field).
While the McLeod harvesting system is proving to be highly effective and efficient, there is of course always room for improvement.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a system, method and apparatus for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the McLeod harvesting system.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of harvesting crops from non-adjacent areas of land on which the crop is grown, which comprises notionally dividing the areas of land into at least two groupings and for each grouping establishing a site for a cleaning mill for graff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, harvested from the land in each the grouping by a mobile graff harvester, cleaning graff harvested from one of the notional groupings in a mobile cleaning mill provided at the site established for that grouping, subsequently moving the mobile cleaning mill to a site established for another of the groupings, and cleaning graff harvested by a mobile graff harvester from land in the other grouping in the mobile cleaning mill.
In this method, each grouping is preferably determined by dividing the areas of land according to relative proximity of the areas.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of harvesting crops from an area of land on which the crop is grown and of ;~." E It creating output consisting of grain or millings, a mixture of chaff and weed seeds, at multiple locations, which method comprises providing a mobile cleaning mill for gram at a first site for producing outputs of grain and millings, and subsequently moving the cleaning mill to at least one other site and processing further graff as the at least one other site to produce the outputs at the at least one other site.
In a further aspect, the invention also provides a cleaning mill for graff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, comprising a graff receiving unit, a separating unit for separating grain from chaff and weed seeds in the gruff, an outlet for the separated grain, and an outlet for a mixture of the chaff and weed seeds, l0 wherein the mill incorporates a drive unit provided with a mobile source of power capable of operating the mill for cleaning the gruff, and transportation elements allowing the cleaning mill to be transported, the transportation elements being movable from a retracted position, permitting the mill to rest securely on a supporting surface, to an extended position in which the transportation elements support the cleaning mill and elevate the mill above the supporting surface to permit the transportation of the mill.
The transportation elements preferably comprise wheels, optionally arranged into wheel sets comprising more than one wheel. The mill also preferably comprises a towing hitch for attachment to a vehicle for towing the mill. The towing 2o hitch is preferably pivotable on the mill from an upwardly tilted position, in which the hitch is positioned during use of the mill, to a generally horizontal position, in which the hitch is position during towing, the hitch being movable between the positions by hydraulic cylinders.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, there is provided a 2s cleaning mill for gruff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, comprising a gruff receiving unit, conveying apparatus for conveying gruff from the receiving unit to a separation unit for separating grain in the gruff from chaff and weed seeds, an outlet for the separated grain, and an outlet for a mixture of the chaff and weed seeds, and including a collector for collecting unseparated clusters of grain and chaff that are 3o retained within the separation unit, a threshing unit for re-threshing the clusters and creating an output including separated grain and chaff, and delivery equipment for delivering the clusters to the threshing unit and for delivering the output from the threshing unit to the conveying apparatus for the graff.
It should be understood that the term "grain" as used herein is intended to include not only conventional grains, such as wheat, barley, rye, etc., but the seeds of crops such rapeseed, canola, peas, mustard, lentils, etc., i.e. the cleaned products of all plant crops that are conventionally harvested using combine harvesters.
Moreover, the coined word graff, as used herein, means a threshed crop harvest from which most or all of the stalks have been removed. Graff normally comprises largely chaff, grain, and weed seeds (as weeds are always present to some extent in harvested crops). Although in the McLeod harvesting system the harvested crop is subjected to vigorous threshing to separate stalks and to produce a graff product, the graff may contain unseparated clusters of chaff and grain, e.g.
partially or fully unthreshed ears or heads of the crop plants, as the threshing procedure may not always be fully effective to dislodge grain from other plant materials.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a diagram schematically representing a harvesting method and apparatus according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Figs. 2 to 6 are similar diagrams to Fig. 1 illustrating alternative embodiments of the present invention;
Fig. 7 is a cross-section of a cleaning mill prior to modification according to the present invention:
Fig. 8 is a side elevation of a cleaning mill according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 9 is a front elevation (from the right hand side of Fig. 8) of the cleaning mill of Fig. 8;
Fig. 10 is a partial cross-section of the grain separating unit of a cleaning mill (with parts removed for clarity of description) according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 11 is a perspective view (from the front and below) of the grain separating unit of Fig. 10 (with parts removed for clarity of description).
The McLeod harvesting system makes use of a mobile field unit or harvester to cut the crop, to thresh it, to remove stalks (which are returned to the field) and to collect the remainder of the crop (known as gruff). The gruff is then transferred from the harvester to a vehicle (e.g. a conventional haulage truck) and is delivered to a stationary cleaning mill where the grain is separated from the remainder of the threshed crop, generally a mixture of chaff and weed seeds, known as millings.
In PCT publication WO 00/76294 mentioned above, the concept is presented that the crop to be harvested and cleaned should be transported to the cleaning mill as fast as it can be harvested by the field unit or harvester (i.e. the system should be organized is in such a manner that the harvesting is the slowest step of the entire process so that it can be carried out substantially without interruption, while the other steps are faster so that the harvested gruff may be transported and processed as quickly as it becomes available without the need for gruff storage). To achieve this, it is stated that the stationary cleaning mill should be capable of quickly processing the gruff 2o and should ideally be located no more than a certain maximum distance (e.g.
about 6 km) away from the crop field undergoing harvesting, and that sufficient vehicles should be provided to ensure that collection of the gruff, delivery to the stationary mill and return can be accomplished without delaying the harvester.
Optionally, the distance is sufficient that only a single vehicle is needed to service the harvester and 25 the stationary cleaning mill without causing delay.
Until now, the intention has been to find a suitable fixed site for the cleaning mill that would be as close as possible to the areas) of land being harvested to optimize receipt of gruff from one or more harvesters working the land, and then to deliver or build a cleaning mill at that site on a permanent basis (at least for one 3o harvesting season). A suitable site would have a fixed supply of power, preferably mains electricity, to run the mill, grain bins to store the cleaned grain and a suitable place to pile the considerable amounts of material (millings) remaining ai~er the i,~~ ~i~~
cleaning of the graff. Often the stationary mill would be located in a farmers yard adjacent to farm buildings having a source of electricity to run the mill.
It has now been found, however, that locations for the cleaning mill considered ideal for the efficiency of operation of the harvesting system often do not have convenient sources of electricity or other power and, moreover, that greater convenience and efficiency can often be achieved if the mill can be moved without undue difficulty from one site to another at least once, and possibly many times, during a harvesting season. The present invention, in one of its aspects, therefore provides an improved way of operating the McLeod harvesting system utilizing a to mobile cleaning mill instead of a permanently installed stationary mill of the type previously disclosed.
It has now been realized that the ideal positioning of a cleaning mill is dependent on the following factors, provided in decreasing order of general importance (although this order may in some cases):
1. Distance from the area or areas of land to be harvested and/or convenience of access thereto.
2. Desired location for the creation of a millings pile (with adjacent firm flat land for support of the mill).
2o 3. Availability of bins or other containers for grain storage and access for transport of grain from the containers.
4. Availability of animals and an area for receiving the animals adjacent to the millings pile when the millings are used for animal feed.
The distance from and/or convenience of access to the area or areas of land to be harvested is still considered most important in order to ensure that the harvesting unit is not delayed by the time taken for graff collection vehicles) to deliver graff to the mill and return for refilling. However, since considerable quantities of millings are produced by the cleaning mill, it has proven to be important to find a location where a millings pile may be established and preferably used (for animal feed). Once a millings pile has been created, it is extremely difficult to move, so it is important to be able to create the pile where it is needed.
A farmer's yard is not always the most convenient place to create such a pile and a more remote area of a farm may be more suitable. However, there is a limit to the distance (normally about 200 feet) over which millings may be transferred from the cleaning mill to a suitable site for the pile using the material-conveying fan forming part of the mill, so the site for the mill and the millings pile usually must be chosen together. As the millings are a valuable feedstuff for animals, such as cattle and other ruminants, the pile is advantageously created close to an area where such animals are permanently held, or close to an area where animals may be temporarily brought in for feeding from the millings pile, such as an enclosed field not being used for other purposes.
Additionally, unless the cleaned grain or seeds are to be removed from the site immediately (e.g. by being delivered directly from the mill to a waiting vehicle), there must be storage bins or other containers at the site location.
Such bins are often permanent fixtures, so the availability of such bins is an important consideration. However, storage bins may sometimes be movable, in which case they can be positioned at the site of the cleaning mill without too much difficulty.
Often one bin is located close to the cleaning mill with others provided some distance away. The bin that is close to the mill is used for storing grain produced by the mill, and the stored grain may then be transferred to the more remote bins as the bin that is close to the mill fills up. Conventional means for moving grain from one bin to another may be used for this purpose.
Ideal locations determined according to these factors often do not have convenient sources of electricity or other power to operate the mill, so in the past, such locations may not have been chosen, resulting in a reduced operational efficiency of the harvesting system.
Moreover, it has been found that in many cases a farmer will have several areas to be harvested that are not immediately adjacent to eachother, or sometimes the equipment will be shared between two or more farmers having areas to be harvested that are not immediately adjacent. Consequently, there may be more than one ideal location for the cleaning mill determined according to the above factors, but in the past it has not be practical or economic to position a stationary cleaning mill permanently at each such location for the duration of a harvesting season or longer.
In the present invention, at least in one of its main aspects, the cleaning mill is made to be transportable and self powered for the graff cleaning operation.
It is not necessary, however, to make the cleaning mill self propelled and it is preferable that it be towable from place to place by a vehicle such as a tractor. In this way, the cleaning mill can be moved from site to site as required for maximum efficiency during a harvesting season or from one season to another. It is important to note that, in the McLeod harvesting system, it has been the intention in the past to 1o provide a permanent cleaning mill at each site, i.e. a mill permanently installed at a particular site for the duration of a harvesting season or beyond and to provide the mill with a fixed source of power for the cleaning operation, i.e. by connection to a pre-existing electrical supply.
The present invention, at least in on of its preferred forms, contemplates the establishment of a plurality of optimal sites determined according to the factors mentioned above, and then the movement of the cleaning mill from one site to another during a single harvesting season to maximize the effciency of the harvesting system. In essence, diverse areas of land are notionally divided up into groupings according to their relative proximity. That is to say, areas that are close 2o to eachother in terms of distance or ease of access or approach are considered to form a grouping that will supply harvested graff to a cleaning mill positioned at a site established for that particular grouping. Of course, in some cases a "grouping"
of land areas may consist of a single area of land, e.g. a single field.
According to this form of the invention, there will be at least two such groupings of land and at least two different cleaning mill sites, one for each group. A single mobile cleaning mill will then be positioned at the site for one of the groupings and the land of that grouping will be harvested by one or more mobile harvesters. One or more trucks will deliver harvested graff to the cleaning mill, which will then process the graff and store the resulting cleaned grain in a suitable container at the site, and will 3o create a millings pile at or adjacent to the site. Optionally, animals will be held adjacent to the site for feeding with the graff.
~, ;a I i Once the land of the first grouping has been harvested, the cleaning mill is moved to the site established for another land grouping and the process will be repeated. In this way, all the areas of land may be harvested in turn in the most efficient way using a minimum amount of equipment and the products (grain and millings) may be positioned at optimal locations. To some extent, therefore, the harvesters) and cleaning mill follow eachother so that a greater area may be serviced by a fixed amount of harvesting and cleaning apparatus.
In another form of the invention, the mill may serve only one grouping of land, and may be moved by a relatively short distance from one position to another to within the general location chosen for the cleaning mill. This may be desirable when, for example, more than one millings pile is to be created at different locations, or the cleaning mill must be moved from one set of fixed storage containers to another. As the cleaning mill has been made readily movable, it is easier to move the mill than to move storage containers or millings piles.
The following description explains these concepts in greater detail using examples of various possible groupings of harvesting areas and equipment.
According to Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings, a single farmer has several non-contiguous and non-adjacent areas to be harvested, i.e. fields 10, 12, 14 and 16. In this example, fields 10 and 12 lie in a valley and are connected by a road 20, whereas fields 14 and 16 are hilltop fields accessible via a steep and winding road 22. In this situation, the area to be harvested is divided into two notional groupings 26 and 28 indicated by dotted lines. For each grouping, a location is selected for the positioning of a cleaning mill. This location acts as a node (a point at which graff delivery routes from the various fields converge). For grouping 26, a location 30 is selected because it is a short, almost equal, distance from each of the fields 10 and 12 so that a harvester 32 can be serviced quickly by a single truck (not shown) whether harvesting field 10 or field 12. The location 30 is close to the valley road 20 and has flat land for receiving a cleaning mill 34, a collection of grain storage bins 36 and a free area for a millings pile 38. An adjacent field 40 can 3o be used for grazing animals, such as cattle, which may use the millings from pile 38 as a source of food.
lll~','; ; I I
In contrast, the grouping 28 is difficult to serve when the cleaning mill 34 is in location 30. The road 22 is too slow and winding for a graff delivery vehicle to make a round trip from field 14 or 16 in sufficient time to avoid harvesting delays when harvester 32 is working on these fields. Therefore, a second location 42 is identified for positioning the cleaning mill. This location 42 is also on flat land and has a collection 44 of grain bins and an area where a millings pile 46 may be established. In this case, when the harvester has finished harvesting fields 10 and 12, it is transported along road 22 to harvest fields 14 and 16. At the same time, the cleaning mill 34 is towed along road 22 and positioned at location 42, so that it is in l0 close proximity to the fields 14 and 16 for efficient grain harvesting. The grain in the collection of bins 44 may be removed by a vehicle, such as a truck, and either added to bins 36 or taken directly to the next point of a grain delivery system. At location 42, there are no animals to consume the millings pile 46, so it may be left unused or removed over time by truck to join the pile 38 or may be sold to other farmers who will remove it.
In this way, a single harvester and a single grain cleaning mill (and preferably a single truck) may be used to harvest a farm having fields in positions that would otherwise decrease the efficiency of the grain harvesting system operated with a single site for the cleaning operation. This is only made possible by providing a transportable cleaning mill having an independent power source for carrying out the cleaning operations of the mill (as there is no convenient power source, such as electricity, in location 42 at least).
Fig. 2 shows a situation in which two locations selected for the cleaning mill are quite close together. In this case, it is desired to create two millings piles 50 and 52 in different, but close, locations X and Y. When a cleaning mill 54 is employed that is movable and self powered, it is easier to move the cleaning mill from one location to another than it is to move a millings pile, once created. The mill 54 is shown in broken lines in location Y to illustrate the position to which it is moved once it has finished operation in location X. As noted earlier, there is a limit to the distance over which millings may be conveyed from the cleaning mill, so it is not possible merely to reposition a millings outlet pipe to create millings piles in different locations without moving the cleaning mill when this distance is exceeded.
'. ' '.I~~i9lrv_iiS H' Accordingly, the cleaning mill itself may be repositioned. Each site for the cleaning mill may be provided with a collection of storage bins 58, 60, with one bin being positioned close to the mill at each site for receipt of grain directly from the mill and the other bins located at a greater distance fox receipt of grain from the bin positioned close to the mill.
Fig. 3 again shows a situation in which two locations X aad Y selected for the cleaning mill 66 are quite close together. In this case, there are collections of grain bins 68, 70 at two different locations within a graff processing site.
The cleaning mill 66 may be positioned in a first location X to fill the first collection of l0 grain bins 68, and then moved to a second location Y to fill a second collection of bins 70. In this case, the bins are so positioned that the cleaning mill may transfer millings to a single millings pile 72 from both locations.
Fig. 4 shows a situation in which the owners of two farms 74 and 76 are sharing the harvesting equipment. Each farmer has provided a location X and Y
for the cleaning mill 78, a collection of grain bins 80, 82 and a millings pile 84, 86, and has an adjacent field 88, 90 for animals. A single harvester (not shown) and a single cleaning mill 78 may be used to harvest the fields of each farm in turn simply by moving the equipment from the first farm 74 to the second farm 76 once the harvesting of the first farm is complete. This arrangement is effective when the two 2o farms are too far from eachother to use a single fixed location for the cleaning mill and millings pile.
Fig. 5 shows an example in which there are three field areas 92, 94 and 96 each being harvested by separate harvesters 98, 100, 102. In this case, a single site X is chosen for two separate cleaning mills 104, 106. In this case, therefore, three harvesters are serviced by two cleaning mills. In general, multiple harvesters may be serviced by a smaller number of cleaning mills at a single site. While the cleaning mills are not moved in this illustration, the arrangement shows the flexibility of the harvesting system.
Fig. 6 shows a situation in which there are multiple farms 110, 112 and 114, 3o and just a single harvester 116 and a single cleaning mill 118. Both the harvester and cleaning mill are moved from farm to farm (as illustrated by broken lines) as harvesting and grain cleaning is completed.
In order to accommodate the required movements of the cleaning mill, the mill must be made transportable and independently powered for the cleaning operation. The cleaning mill of the present invention may operate for cleaning graff in essentially the same way as the cleaning mills disclosed in WO 00/76294, but it incorporates important modifications. To provide a basis for understanding the modifications of the present invention, the manner of operation of one of the cleaning mills of WO 00/76294 will first be briefly described in the following passages.
In the form of the cleaning mill 200 shown in Fig. 7 of the accompanying 1o drawings, a graff receiving unit 202 and a graff conveyor 204 allow graff to be deposited as a full load from a truck (not shown) by driving the truck into the receiving unit (when in a horizontal position), upending the truck box, dumping the graff load, and driving the truck out of the receiving unit. The receiving unit 202 is then raised to the position shown in Fig. 7 and the graff is delivered in a constant 15 stream to a laterally elongated upper inlet 206 of the cleaning mill by a slatted conveyor apparatus 208 moving along the surface of the floor of the graff conveyor 204.
The mill 200 contains a graff separating (screening) unit 210 incorporated into the main body 212 of the cleaning mill. As shown in simplified schematic form 20 in Fig. 7, upon entering the mill through entrance 206, the graff falls onto a grain pan 214 moving with a reciprocating action that tends to stratify the graff into components of different density and levels the graff into an even carpet 216.
The grain pan moves the graff forwards until it falls onto a cleaning shoe 218.
The cleaning shoe includes an upper chaffer screen 220 and a lower grain sieve 222 that 25 are reciprocated back and forth in an opposed motion. A short extension sieve 224 is also provided at the distant end of the chaffer screen 220. This can be adjusted independently of the chaffer screen, and can be raised at an angle to slow down the flow of material, if desired. As the graff passes through the shoe 218, large chaff, stalks, cut heads and stones are separated mainly by the chaffer screen 220 and then 3o intermediate contents (e.g. weed seeds, small chaff, stalk parts, etc.), are separated at the grain sieve 222. Essentially only grain 226 itself passes through the grain sieve 222 and falls to a collection pan 228 that has sloping front and rear walls directing the grain to a central trough 230 for removal by a cross auger 232 through a grain exit (not shown).
As the graff is separated into its components in this way, air is blown upwardly and outwardly through the shoe 118 as indicated by arrows A. This air flow suspends essentially all of the graff components except the grain and heavy objects such as stones. In fact, as the graffdrops onto the shoe 118 from the grain pan 114, it encounters a blast of air forceful enough to blow away essentially everything but clean grain kernels of the desired size (and heavy objects, such as stones). This reduces the amount of separation required to be carried out by the to shoe 118 itself. Both the suspended chaff and the heavy objects proceed to a cyclone separating unit 136. The suspended chaff is carried by the air flow, whereas the heavy objects are moved by the reciprocating action of the shoe sieves into the inlet 921 of the cyclone unit.
The airflow is created by a fan 240 positioned within the cleaning mill beneath the graff conveyor 204. The fan directs air into conduit 242 leading to the cleaning shoe 218, and eventually to a cyclone 248, but an adjustable diverter 244 is provided upstream of the shoe to direct a portion of the air into a bypass conduit 246 as indicated by arrows B. The air from the bypass 246 nevertheless also enters the cyclone unit 248 with the air that has passed through the cleaning shoe 218.
The 2o diverter allows the airflow A through the shoe to be made appropriate for cleaning the graff (designed to blow away everything below kernel removal) while still allowing a high rate of airflow through the cyclone unit 248.
The cyclone unit 248, by virtue of the spiral flow of air passing therethrough and the density of the suspended chaff, causes the suspended chaff to congregate around the inside wall 250 of the unit so that clean air that is substantially free of chaff and other solids may exit the unit through a central opening 252. The chaff, propelled by a further flow of air, exits a chaff delivery port 254 located at an outside lower region of the cyclone unit. The clean air is recirculated directly to the fan 240 via ducting (not shown), although a certain amount of clean air from the outside may be introduced into the recirculated air, e.g. through an elongated slot provided adjacent to the graff entrance 206, to replace air escaping with the chaff and to reduce the build-up of dust.
i~.,,i,j"..i:iiiij The solids exiting chaff delivery port 254 contain chaff proper, weed seeds, unthreshed heads, and small grain kernels. This mixture is conveyed through ducting to a high speed centrifugal material-conveying fan (not shown) provided with paddle-like blades. The fan has a hammering, impacting or chopping effect that reduces the size of large items and tends to crack, nick or crush weed seeds and small grain kernels (thus making them less liable to germinate). The material exiting the fan, now referred to as millings, is then conveyed through tubing (not shown) to a desired location where it is discharged to form an open pile of millings.
A more detailed description of the cleaning mill may be obtained from WO
00/76294, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
For the present invention, the mill as described above is modified in various ways as described with reference to Figs. 8 to 11 of the accompanying drawings.
Firstly, the mill 300 is preferably supported on a rigid frame 302 and is provided with tow sets 304 of freely-rotatable wheels (two wheels per set), or other transportation elements such as tracks, at each side of the mill approximately half way between the two longitudinal ends of the mill. The wheel sets 304 at each side are supported on elongated frame elements 306 that pmvide stub axles for the wheels at one end and have a pivotal connection 308 to the mill body at the other end. Hydraulic piston and cylinder assemblies 310 are pivotally attached at one end 2o to the wheel supporting end of the frame elements 306 and pivotally attached at the other end to the body of the mill. Actuation of the piston and cylinder assemblies allows the wheels to move from an extended position as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, to a retracted position with the wheels drawn up above the lower surface of the rigid frame 302. In this way, the mill can be raised up on the wheel sets as shown, so that the wheel sets support the cleaning mill and elevate the mill above the ground or other supporting surface 312, or alternatively the mill can be lowered onto the ground or supporting surface where the frame forms a stable base for the mill and allows the mill to rest securely on the supporting surface. In the former position, the mill is ready for transportation. In the latter position, the mill is resting securely on (desirably flat, firm) ground and is ready for use in a milling operation.
At the front of the mill, there is a towing hitch 320 for connection to a tractor or other vehicle (not shown) for towing the mill from one location to another. The hitch is pivoted to the rigid frame of the mill and is acted on by a piston and cylinder assembly that allows the hitch to be raised to an approximately vertical position, or lowered towards the ground. The hitch can therefore be raised when the mill is in use, and then lowered for connection with the draw bar or the 5 like of a vehicle in preparation for towing. The piston and cylinder assembly may be powerful enough to enable the hitch to engage the draw bar of the towing vehicle and then raise the front end of the mill, acting on the draw bar and pivoting the mill around the wheel sets after the wheel sets have been moved to their lower positions.
Despite the considerable weight and size of the mill, the illustrated 10 arrangement may be towed by a tractor or other powerful vehicle over roads or fields in order to transport the mill from one location to another.
The mill is provided with a motor having a portable source of power (e:g. a diesel or other fuel operated motor provided with a fuel tank for a supply of diesel fuel) and a hydraulic pump enclosed in a casing 326. The casing is pivoted to the 15 mill body at one end and may be swung out to a perpendicular position ready for use, thereby exposing a radiator of the motor for unobstructed air flow. The motor, which is operated when the mill has been towed to a suitable location, powers the hydraulic pump, which then operates all of the moving parts of the cleaning mill.
This is in contrast to the arrangement shown in WO 00/76294 where the various fans and driven elements are operated by electric motors (e.g. written pole motors) connected to a fixed source of power, e.g. electrical mains. Consequently, all of the fans and drive elements of the null of the present invention have been converted for hydraulic or hydrostatic operation so that they may be driven by the diesel engine-powered hydraulic pump. In this way, there is no need for a separate source of power, e.g. electricity, at the location where the mill is employed. The mill may be simply towed in place, lowered to the ground, and operated via the diesel motor.
Incidentally, the diesel motor also drives a small electric generator for powering the electronic controls of the mill, i.e. all equipment that has to be operated electrically rather than hydraulically.
The ready mobility and independence of operation of the mobile cleaning mill of the present invention allows the efficiency of the harvesting operation to be maximized in the ways indicated above.
The efficiency of the mill may be improved in yet a further way compared to the mill of WO 00/76294. It has been found that, during the operation of the mill shown in Figs. 7, clusters of chaff and grain, e.g. unthreshed parts of plant heads or ears, may pass through chaffer screen 220 but not through the lower grain sieve 222.
These clusters eventually fall off the distal end of the grain sieve and accumulate within the body of the mill. They have to be cleaned out periodically to prevent the creation of blockages. To overcome this problem, the mill has been modified in the manner shown in Figs. 10 and 11. As shown in Fig. 10, grain passing through the grain sieve 222 contacts a sloping pan 228 as before and is directed into channel 230 where it is removed from the cleaning mill by auger 232. In addition, a second pan surface 402 is provided to receive materials falling over the end of the grain sieve 222. The second pan surface 402 extends rearwardly and downwardly beneath the first pan surface 228 for the grain and directs materials to a second channel 404 provided with an auger 406 which removes the material from the mill body. As shown in Fig. 11, the material delivered by the auger is fed into a re-threshing unit 410 (e.g. a cylinder and concave of known design) where the grain and chaff are separated from the clusters, and the resulting mixture of grain and chaff is conveyed by an auger tube 412 to a paddle blower 414 that delivers the mixture to a cross-feeder 416 that feeds the material back to the reciprocating grain pan 214 for delivery once again to the cleaning shoe 218. In this way, the clusters are separated into grain and chaff and delivered to the separate outlets for these materials. This re-threshing of the cluster material prevents them from accumulating in the body of the cleaning mill and increases the yield of grain and millings delivered by the mill.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the specific description above relates to preferred embodiments of the invention and that modifications and variations will be possible without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
Claims (11)
1. A method of harvesting crops from non-adjacent areas of land on which the crop is grown, which comprises notionally dividing the areas of land into at least two groupings and for each grouping establishing a site for a cleaning mill for graff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, harvested from said land in each said grouping by a mobile graff harvester, cleaning graff harvested from one of said notional groupings in a mobile cleaning mill provided at the site established for that grouping, subsequently moving said mobile cleaning mill to a site established for another of said groupings, and cleaning graff harvested by a mobile graff harvester from land in said other grouping in said mobile cleaning mill.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein each grouping is determined by dividing the areas of land according to relative proximity of the areas.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein, for each grouping, said cleaning site is determined by optimizing the following factors:
a) distance of the area(s) of land within the grouping from the site or ease of access thereto;
b) desirability of site for creation of a millings pile; and c) availability of containers at said site for cleaned grain from said graff.
a) distance of the area(s) of land within the grouping from the site or ease of access thereto;
b) desirability of site for creation of a millings pile; and c) availability of containers at said site for cleaned grain from said graff.
4. The method of claim 4, where in said site is additionally chosen on the basis of proximity to an area housing or for receiving animals that may feed from millings generated by said cleaning mill.
5. A method of harvesting crops,from an area of land on which the crop is grown and of creating output consisting of grain or millings, a mixture of chaff and weed seeds, at multiple locations, which method comprises providing a mobile cleaning mill for graff at a first site for producing outputs of grain and millings, and subsequently moving said cleaning mill to at least one other site and processing further graff as said at least one other site to produce said outputs at said at least one other site.
6. A cleaning mill for graff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, comprising a graff receiving unit, a separating unit for separating grain from chaff and weed seeds in said graff, an outlet for said separated grain, and an outlet for a mixture of said chaff and weed seeds, wherein said mill incorporates a drive unit provided with a mobile source of power capable of operating said mill for cleaning said graff, and transportation elements allowing said cleaning mill to be transported, said transportation elements being movable from a retracted position, permitting said mill to rest securely on a supporting surface, to an extended position in which the transportation elements support the cleaning mill and elevate the mill above said supporting surface to permit said transportation of the mill.
7. The mill of claim 6, wherein said transportation elements comprise wheels.
8. The mill of claim 6, further comprising a towing hitch for attachment to a vehicle for towing said mill.
9. The mill of claim 8, wherein said towing hitch is pivotable on said mill from an upwardly tilted position, in which the hitch is positioned during use of the mill, to a generally horizontal position, in which the hitch is position during towing, said hitch being movable between said positions by hydraulic cylinders.
10. A cleaning mill for graff, a mixture of chaff, weed seeds and grain, comprising a graff receiving unit, conveying apparatus for conveying graff from said receiving unit to a separation unit for separating grain in said graff from chaff and weed seeds, an outlet for said separated grain, and an outlet for a mixture of said chaff and weed seeds, and including a collector for collecting unseparated clusters of grain and chaff that are retained within said separation unit, a threshing unit for re-threshing said clusters and creating an output including separated grain and chaff, and delivery equipment for delivering said clusters to said threshing unit and for delivering said output from said threshing unit to said conveying apparatus for said graff.
11. The mill of claim 10, wherein said collector comprises an inclined surface beneath said separation unit for directing said clusters to a channel, from which channel said clusters may be delivered to said threshing unit.
Priority Applications (3)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2388715 CA2388715A1 (en) | 2002-06-03 | 2002-06-03 | Method and apparatus for harvesting and cleaning grain and seed crops |
| AU2003233726A AU2003233726A1 (en) | 2002-06-03 | 2003-06-03 | Method and apparatus for harvesting and cleaning grain and seed crops |
| PCT/CA2003/000835 WO2003101181A2 (en) | 2002-06-03 | 2003-06-03 | Method and apparatus for harvesting and cleaning grain and seed crops |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2388715 CA2388715A1 (en) | 2002-06-03 | 2002-06-03 | Method and apparatus for harvesting and cleaning grain and seed crops |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA2388715A1 true CA2388715A1 (en) | 2003-12-03 |
Family
ID=29783852
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA 2388715 Abandoned CA2388715A1 (en) | 2002-06-03 | 2002-06-03 | Method and apparatus for harvesting and cleaning grain and seed crops |
Country Status (2)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| AU (1) | AU2003233726A1 (en) |
| CA (1) | CA2388715A1 (en) |
-
2002
- 2002-06-03 CA CA 2388715 patent/CA2388715A1/en not_active Abandoned
-
2003
- 2003-06-03 AU AU2003233726A patent/AU2003233726A1/en not_active Abandoned
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| AU2003233726A1 (en) | 2003-12-19 |
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| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| EEER | Examination request | ||
| FZDE | Dead |