An agricultural harvester includes a chassis, with a separating system and a residue handling system each carried by the chassis. The separating system receives a flow of crop material producing a chaff flow and a residue flow. The residue handling system receives the chaff flow and the residue flow from the separating system, and the residue handling system includes a residue chopper operationally positioned immediately above a residue spreader. The residue spreader is oriented to receive the chaff flow and the residue flow chopped by the residue chopper.