Patent ID: 6948300

Claim:
A method for harvesting forage crops with a harvester comprising a processing unit and a pickup header, the pickup header including at least one pair of augers situated one above another, the at least one pair of augers being on at least one side of the pickup unit and rotating on axes substantially parallel to a pickup header axis, the pickup header being wider than a width of the processing unit, the method comprising: (a) picking up the forage crop with the pickup header having teeth with which to move the forage crop; (b) transferring the forage crop towards the processing unit with the teeth in a direction substantially perpendicular to the pickup header axis; (c) directing the forage crop in the pickup header outside the width of the processing unit toward a middle of the pickup header with the at least one pair of augers on at least one side of the pickup unit, shafts of said at least one pair of augers not extending across a full width of the pickup header; and (d) driving individual augers within one pair of augers such that respective tangential speeds at an outer circumference of each of said individual augers are unequal.