Patent ID: 7568330

Claim:
A field chopper for harvesting agricultural crops, the field chopper comprising: an internal combustion engine in drive connection with a crop intake device, a chopping device, and a feeding device that transfers crop from the crop intake device to the chopping device; a controller coupled to the feeding device and configured to set a drive speed of the feeding device, the controller also being connected to a coupling that engages and disengages a drive of the crop intake device, the controller further being connected to an operator input device that enables input for starting the chopping operation of the field chopper; the controller being configured to automatically trigger the following steps for an operator input into the operator input device for starting the chopping operation: bringing the drive speed of the feeding device to a speed corresponding to a minimum value below a desired value for the harvesting operation; closing the coupling; and after a preset time has elapsed, bringing the drive speed of the feeding device up to the desired value.