US Patent Issued to Precision Planting on March 25 for "Agricultural trench depth sensing systems, methods, and apparatus" (Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,256,656, issued on March 25, was assigned to Precision Planting LLC (Tremont, Ill.).

"Agricultural trench depth sensing systems, methods, and apparatus" was invented by Michael Strnad (Delavan, Ill.) and Nicholas Minarich (Shorewood, Ill.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An agricultural trench depth sensing system and method includes a light source (2002), a receiver (2003) and a sensor (2004). The light source directs light downwardly toward a trench previously opened in a soil surface. The receiver is disposed at an angle relative to the light source to receive reflected light. A sensor connected to the receiver senses a pattern of the ...