Agriculture

Selectively Harvesting Multiple Components of a Plant Material

Related Patents:  6729951 ; 7,744,450 ; 7,918,721

Contact: David R. Anderson

Phone: (208) 526-0837

E-mail:  Send E-mail

In combine harvesters, a crop or plant material is cut from the field and passed through a threshing and separating mechanism to separate the grain. The grain, along with other impurities such as chaff, dust, leaves or other straw particles, is fed to a cleaning mechanism to further clean and separate the grain from such impurities. INL researchers have developed a method that will allow farmers to target a specific component of a crop to increase the return of the crop. The method and apparatus developed at INL allows for selectively harvesting a crop at the same time as the harvesting of the grain material.