Patent ID: 7377093

Claim:
A farm machine for inverting crop windrows comprising: an arm assembly which revolves in a horizontal plane around an axle affixed to the farm machine; arms attached to the arm assembly and extending from the axle; raking tines attached to each arm, the tines having a peripheral velocity due to revolution of the arm assembly, and as the farm machine moves over a windrow with a machine direction and a machine speed, engage crop on the ground at a first location on the arm assembly's revolution path and discharge the crop at a second location on the arm assembly's revolution path; and a tine control apparatus that determines the position of the first and second locations on the arm assembly's revolution path so that the tines engage and move a windrow, and as the tines discharge the crop, the crop is inverted from its previous condition; wherein the tine control apparatus positions the second location on the arm assembly's revolution path so that a component of the tine peripheral velocity parallel to the direction of travel is substantially in the same direction as the machine direction when the crop is being disengaged from the tines.