A combination of a towing vehicle, such as a tractor, and an agricultural harvesting machine drawn thereby, such as a baler or a self-loading forage wagon, operates to detect whether the harvesting machine is in a harvesting situation (S1) or in a field-end situation (S2) by use of a control device. The control device is operated to specify at least one parameter setting for at least one functional device, by which the combination is operated in a harvesting configuration (K1) or in a field-end configuration (K2), depending on the situation (S1, S2) that is detected.