Patent ID: 8490371

Claim:
A disc cutterbar for an agricultural header for severing a standing crop as the header is forwardly propelled comprising: an elongate, generally rigid support frame connected to the header; a plurality of disc cutter modules attached to and spaced apart along the support frame, each module having a low-profile electric drive motor with an upwardly oriented, rotatable output shaft, and a top cover connected to the output shaft for rotation therewith; and a plurality of knives connected to each top cover, rotation of the plurality of knives defining a cutting periphery, the rotation of the plurality of knives and each top cover causing cut crop material to be directed upwardly over the top cover after the crop has been severed from the ground; wherein the plurality of cutter modules is positioned on the frame so that the knives on the plurality of modules is generally coplanar the cutting periphery of adjacent modules does not overlap, and the rotating knives produce a continuous swath of cut crop as the cutterbar is forwardly propelled through a standing crop a controller and at least one input, the controller configured for separately managing at least the rotational speed of a plurality of the electric motors between multiple operating speeds from the input.