Patent ID: 6672034
Filing Date: 2004-01-06
Classification: A01F

Abstract:
A method for loading agricultural feed into a horizontally deployed bag comprising:providing an extruder rotor having an input hopper and an output tunnel, the input hopper having a capacity to hold feed; providing a buffer table having a capacity to hold feed that is larger than the capacity of the hopper; deploying the bag from the forward end of the tunnel towards a rearward end of the tunnel; unloading onto the buffer table an amount of feed that is greater than the capacity of the hopper; conveying the feed along the buffer table towards and into the hopper; automatically limiting a height of the feed from the buffer table before the feed enters the hopper; compacting the feed with the extruder rotor, from the tunnel forward end, into the tunnel between the forward and rearward ends; extruding the feed from the rearward end of the tunnel into the bag; and expanding the tunnel from a first configuration suitable to fill a bag having a first diameter to a second configuration suitable to fill a bag having a second diameter larger than the first diameter.