The modern combine harvester, or simply a combine harvester, is a versatile machine designed to efficiently harvest a variety of grain crops. The name derives from combining four separate harvests in its operations - harvesting, threshing, picking and blending in a single operation. Combine harvested crops include wheat, rice, oats, rye, barley, corn (maize), sorghum, soybeans, flax (flaxseed), sunflower, and canola. Separated straw left in the field contains the stems of the crop and the remaining leaves with limited nutrients left in it: the straw is then chopped, spread over the field and baled or baled for bedding and limited feed. for livestock.

Harvesters are one of the most economically important labor-saving inventions, significantly reducing the proportion of the population engaged in agriculture.

In Scotland in 1826, inventor Reverend Patrick Bell designed (but did not patent) a reaper that used the scissors principle of cutting plants - a principle that is still used today. Bell machine was pushed by horses. Several Bell machines existed in the United States. In 1835, in the United States, Hiram Moore built and patented the first combine harvester that could mow, thresh and harvest grains. The first versions were shot by teams of horses, mules or oxen. [2] In 1835, Moore developed a full-scale version with a length of 5.2 m (17 ft) and a cutting width of 4.57 m (15 ft); More than 20 hectares (50 acres) of crops were harvested in 1839. [3] This combine harvester was pulled by 20 horses fully managed by the ranchers. By 1860, a shear or combines swathe, meters wide, were used on American farms.