Editing Combine harvester (section)

{{Short description|Machine that harvests grain crops}}
{{For|the novelty song|The Combine Harvester}}
{{Lead too short|date=March 2024}}
[[File:Corn combine harvest with grain cart-4.jpg|thumb|link=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Combine_harvester_and_grain_cart.webm|Corn combine harvester with [[grain cart]] ([https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Combine_harvester_and_grain_cart.webm click for video])]]

The modern '''combine harvester''', also called a '''combine''', is a machine designed to harvest a variety of cultivated seeds. Combine harvesters are one of the most economically important labour-saving inventions, significantly reducing the fraction of the population engaged in agriculture.<ref>{{cite book |last=Constable |first=George |url=http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=2955 |title=A Century of Innovation: Twenty Engineering Achievements That Transformed Our Lives, Chapter 7, Agricultural Mechanization |author2=Somerville, Bob |publisher=Joseph Henry Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-309-08908-5 |location=Washington, DC}}</ref> Among the crops harvested with a combine are [[wheat]], [[rice]], [[oat]]s, [[rye]], [[barley]], [[Maize|corn]] (maize), [[sorghum]], [[millet]], [[soybean]]s, [[flax]] ([[linseed]]), [[sunflowers]] and [[rapeseed]] (canola). The separated [[straw]] (consisting of stems and any remaining leaves with limited nutrients left in it) is then either chopped onto the field and ploughed back in, or laid out in rows, ready to be [[Baler|baled]] and used for bedding and cattle feed.

The name of the machine is derived from the fact that the harvester combined multiple separate harvesting operations – [[Reaper|reaping]], [[threshing]] or [[winnowing]] and gathering – into a single process around the start of the 20th century.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Mark Hanna |first1=H. |title=Grain Harvesting Machinery |date=2019 |work=Handbook of Farm, Dairy and Food Machinery Engineering |pages=157–174 |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-814803-7.00008-7 |access-date=2024-04-04 |publisher=Elsevier |doi=10.1016/b978-0-12-814803-7.00008-7 |last2=Quick |first2=Graeme R.|isbn=978-0-12-814803-7 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> A combine harvester still performs its functions according to those [[Combine harvester#The operating principle|operating principles]]. The machine can easily be divided into four parts, namely: the [[Combine harvester#Combine header|intake mechanism]], the [[Combine harvester#Thresher designs|threshing and separation system]], the cleaning system, and finally the grain handling and storage system. Electronic monitoring assists the operator by providing an overview of the machine's operation, and the field's yield.