The invention relates to a method (100) for operating an agricultural machine (1, 201) on a useful agricultural area (4, 5), comprising a traction vehicle (2) and a working appliance combination (3, 203) connected to the traction vehicle (2) in the form of a mower and/or rake, the harvest goods being processed with a plurality of working devices (33a-33d, 233a-233c), which are arranged so as to project from a carrying frame (31, 231a-231b) transversely with respect to the direction of travel (F) of the working device combination (3, 203), wherein the working appliances (33a-33d, 233a-233c) can each be raised and lowered independently of one another in order to move the working appliances either into a headland position or into engagement with the harvest goods, characterized in that when processing by means of a preferably satellite-assisted navigation system (21), position data of the working device combination (3, 203) is acquired continuously and, from the same, at least one already processed field area (41, 51) is determined and recorded (112), and in that the working devices (33a-33d, 233a-233c) are each raised automatically (113) on the basis of their positions when reaching the at least one already processed field area (41, 15) again, and/or in that the working devices (33a-33d, 233a-233c) are each automatically lowered (114) on the basis of their positions when moving out of the at least one already processed field area (41, 51 into a field area (42, 52) that is still to be processed.
