How does a combine harvester work?

We went to look at a combine harvester belonging to local farmer Chris Shouler. He explained how it worked and gave us a demonstration.

A combine harvester is a massive machine that cuts wheat and other crops (like barley) in the fields at harvest time.

At the front of the combine is the ‘header’. It collects the crop with the reel which rotates and pulls it into the cutter bar which slices the stems off near their base. An augur brings the crop onto a conveyer belt which takes it up into the machine.

The threshing drum separates the stalks from the grain and the chaff is blown away by fans. Then the grain gets sieved and goes into a tank.

The straw walkers then go up and down and the stems are pushed out the back of the combine. These are collected later by a baler and made into bales for animal bedding.

Then the grain is emptied out through the unloading pipe into a trailer on the back of a tractor.

by Grace, Keira, Lewis & Elias