Hay processing system for a mixer feeder

A mixing and feeding apparatus for processing long-stemmed material within a walled receptacle defining a mixing chamber provided with at least one pair of counterrotating augers and a movable discharge door adapted to remain closed during a mixing mode and to be opened during an unloading mode, each of said augers having a mid portion between a front portion and a rear portion, and each of said augers further having a longitudinal shaft carrying segments of spiral flighting adjacent one another, the apparatus comprising:

• at least one deflectable resiliently biased paddle located between adjacent segments of said spiral flighting in said mid portion of said auger and in lateral alignment with said discharge door, and mounted on said shaft for pivotal movement about an axis offset from the longitudinal axis of said shaft, said paddle being movable between a normally resiliently biased, upright position and a forced, folded-back position during the mixing mode in which the long-stemmed material is processed and returnable to the upright position during the unloading mode in which said resiliently biased paddle acts to sweep the processed long-stemmed material out of the discharge door.

In a mixing and feeding apparatus for processing long-stemmed material within a walled receptacle defining a mixing chamber provided with at least one rotatable auger, said auger having a longitudinal shaft carrying spiral flighting and defining a pair of spaced ends, the improvement comprising:

• a portion of said auger between said spaced ends being constructed free of said flighting;
• and
• a pair of knife assemblies, each of said knife assemblies being radially offset with respect to the other and mounted on said shaft in said auger portion free of said flighting.

A mixing and feeding apparatus for processing long-stemmed material within a walled receptacle defining a mixing chamber provided with at least one auger, each auger having a longitudinal shaft carrying spiral flighting, the apparatus comprising:

• a fixed cutting blade eccentrically mounted on said shaft and having an arcuate, substantially semi-circular cutting surface extending from the periphery of said shaft to the periphery of said flighting for slicing the long-stemmed material.