Patent attributes
A hay baler provided with a tubular duct within which charges of crop material are prepared before being stuffed into the baling chamber has a windrow pickup device at its front end to lift crop materials off the ground as the baler advances. The effective operating width of the pickup is wider than the inlet to the duct so that the stream of crop materials lifted off the ground must be converged centrally into alignment with the inlet before entering the same. A pair of lower stub augers on opposite sides of the inlet are assisted by a pair of upper stub augers rotating in opposite directions relative to the lower augers to accomplish such convergence. A windguard overlies the incoming crop flow as well as the consolidation zone between left and right sets of the stub augers so as to maintain effective control over the flow at all times.