Patent ID: 8393137

Claim:
A biomass harvesting system for harvesting agricultural plant growth from agricultural fields, said biomass harvesting system comprising in operative combination: a power source for providing mechanical and electric power to said system; a biomass accumulator for producing discrete units of accumulated biomass; a windrower for feeding biomass to said biomass accumulator; a biomass quality analyzer for sensing and transmitting a set of quality characteristics of the accumulated biomass; a ground cover residue monitor for sensing and transmitting an optimal quantity of biomass residue to remain on the agricultural field; a central processing unit including a memory module storing an executable instruction set therein, said central processing unit executing said instruction set and integrating said sensed biomass quality characteristics and said sensed optimal quantity of biomass residue to remain on the agricultural field to determine a biomass quality index of the discrete units of accumulated biomass; and an active tracking system for identifying individual ones of the discrete units of accumulated biomass.