Patent ID: 7726108

Claim:
In a wide-cut crop harvester wherein the cutting width of the harvester is wider than conditioning structure on a pair of crop conditioner rolls such that crop materials cut outboard of the conditioning structure must be moved laterally inwardly before moving rearwardly to the conditioning structure, the improvement comprising: a rotary cutter bed extending across the front of the harvester and having a series of rotary cutters rotatable about individual, upright axes, said series of cutters including a group of inboard cutters each having an axis of rotation located inboard of the opposite ends of said conditioning structure and at least one outboard cutter located outboard of each end of the group of inboard cutters, said outboard cutters having axes of rotation located outboard of the opposite ends of said conditioning structure, each of the first and last inboard cutters in the group and the next adjacent one outboard cutter rotating in mutually opposite directions, the first and last inboard cutters in the group each having a cutting blade that projects laterally outwardly beyond the corresponding end of said conditioning structure as the cutting blade sweeps rearwardly; and a pair of axially spaced apart, transversely extending, rotatable augers behind the cutter bed and forward of the conditioner rolls, each of said augers having a portion thereof located behind and between the axes of rotation of the corresponding one outboard cutter and the next adjacent inboard cutter.