Chopper and spreader for an agricultural harvester

An agricultural harvester, comprising:

• a chassis;
• a separating system carried by said chassis, said separating system receiving a flow of crop material and producing a chaff flow and a residue flow;
• and
• a residue handling system carried by said chassis for receiving the chaff flow and the residue flow from said separating system, said residue handling system includes a residue chopper and a residue spreader, said residue handling system having a chopping mode and a windrow mode, the residue flow being presented to and chopped by said residue chopper in said chopping mode, said residue chopper being operationally positioned above said residue spreader, said residue spreader being oriented such that at least a majority of an impeller of the spreader is located within a downward profile of the residue chopper to receive the chaff flow and the residue flow chopped by said residue chopper through a material flow path between the chopper and spreader, when said residue handling system is in said windrow mode the residue flow is allowed to bypass said residue chopper, said residue chopper being configured to operate in the windrow mode at a tangential velocity approximately equal to a velocity of the residue flow that passes over said residue chopper thereby accommodating the residue flow to form a windrow.