The Combine Harvester

A combine harvester is a big farm machine. It does three jobs at once: it cuts crops, separates the grain, and cleans it. Before combines, farmers had to do all of these steps by hand.

How the Combine Was Invented

The first combine harvesters were built in the 1830s. They were pulled by horses or mules. Hiram Moore built one of the first working combines in the United States.

By the 1900s, combines were powered by engines. They got bigger and more powerful over the years. Today's combines are the size of a small house and use computers to help them work.

How Combines Work

A combine has a big cutting bar on the front that chops down the crop. Then the machine pulls the plants inside. A spinning drum separates the grain from the stems and leaves.

The grain is stored in a big tank on top of the combine. The leftover stems are thrown back onto the field. One modern combine can harvest a field in hours that used to take weeks by hand.

Fun Facts

• A modern combine can harvest enough wheat in one day to make 70,000 loaves of bread.
• The biggest combines can cut a strip of crops 45 feet wide.
• Some combines use GPS to drive themselves across a field.

Did You Know?

Before combine harvesters were invented, it took dozens of workers many days to harvest the same amount of grain that one combine can do in just a few hours.