Patent ID: 7028458

Claim:
In a machine for mowing stalk-like crops, having cutting and intake mechanisms arranged side by side, for cutting and conveying of the crop material, wherewith at least one adjacent pair of such cutting and intake mechanism are disposed one each on each side of a longitudinal mid-plane of the machine, said machine further having a cut crop guide element disposed in the center of the machine above, and at the forward side of, a conveying channel in which the plants being harvested are conveyed actively to an intake channel of a field chopper, the improvement comprising: said guide element including surfaces which are disposed at a distance from the conveying channel and are disposed relative to said conveying channel so as to extend upward from said conveying channel in a funnel-like manner, wherein, when said machine is in a harvesting mode, the direction of movement of said at least one pair of cutting and intake mechanisms is such that the plants are transported first outward and then rearward and wherein said conveying channel is located at said mid-plane in a location ahead of said intake channel of said field chopper and includes a transition, which follows a circular arc, from a direction transverse to the direction of travel to a rearward direction.