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AssigneePioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
InventorsJames M. Oepping, Joseph R. Lebeda, Gabi Oetjen, Ralf Oetjen, Barbara Ruser, Jakob Kleinmans, Siegfried Dopp
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The present invention provides an apparatus and a method for spraying forage additives on harvested agricultural crops and includes a container of concentrated additive, an atomizing spray nozzle, a metering pump for supplying the forage additive to the spray nozzle and an electrical control for actuating the metering to provide a supply of concentrated additive to the spray nozzle as desired. In a preferred embodiment, the forage additive container is of a sufficiently small size that it contains less than three thousand milliliters of the concentrated additive for spraying on the harvested crop.
An apparatus for spraying forage additives on harvested agricultural crops comprising:
An apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein said atomizing spray nozzle provides a spray of atomized concentrated additive droplets of a size ranging between of 40 to 50 microns.
An apparatus as recited in claim 6, wherein said atomizing spray nozzle provides a spray having a pattern formed of approximately 30 million droplets per milliliter of concentrated additive.
An apparatus as recited in claim 7, wherein said pump is controllable to alternatively supply said concentrated forage additive to the atomizing spray nozzle or suck such additive from said nozzle as desired.
An apparatus as recited in claim 9, wherein said concentrated forage additive is applied to said harvested crop at the rate of no greater than 50 milliliters of additive per ton of crop.
An apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein said concentrated additive is applied to said crop at a rate of 8 to 12 milliliters per ton.
An apparatus as recited in claim 11, wherein said container of concentrated additive is of a reduced size and contains no more than ten thousand milliliters of said additive.
An apparatus as recited in claim 12, wherein said container of concentrated forage additive is of a reduced size and stores an amount of said additive in the range of from 1000 to 3000 milliliters.
A method of treating a harvested agricultural crop with a forage additive comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.