Patent ID: 7927198

Claim:
A method for collecting corn cobs discharged in residue from a rear of a combine harvester when used to harvest corn, the method comprising: providing a cart having a hitch coupling; collecting the residue containing the cobs and a residue material discharged from the combine harvester in a receiving section; separating the cobs from the residue material to be discharged in a separating arrangement; providing a tank for receiving the cobs from which the residue material has been separated; wherein the separating arrangement includes at least two stages with the second stage following the first stage and receiving the cobs from the first stage; wherein the first stage includes a first conveyor arranged to raise a stream of the residue from the combine harvester to an upper end of the conveyor from which the stream of the residue from the combine harvester is discharged into a first open space from which the cobs fall downwardly for collection; wherein the second stage includes a second conveyor arranged to receive at a lower end material from the first stage and to raise the material to an upper end of the conveyor from which the material is discharged into a second open space from which the cobs fall downwardly for collection; and generating airflows through the materials discharged into the first and second open spaces to effect separation of said residue material from the cobs; wherein the airflows are generated by a single common fan; causing air from the airflows to flow upwardly from the first open space thereby extracting upwardly some of the residue material from the first open space; discharging the residue material extracted upwardly from the stream of the residue so as to leave only the cobs and a part of the residue material from the first open space which fall from the first open space downwardly onto the second conveyor below the first open space; causing air from the airflows to flow upwardly from the second open space thereby extracting upwardly some of the residue material from the second open space; and discharging the residue material extracted from second open space so as to leave only the cobs and any remaining residue material from the second open space to fall for collection.