Agricultural planting depth sensor

An agricultural planting machine comprising:

• a trench opener configured to open a trench;
• and
• a trench depth sensing system comprising:
• a ground-engaging component;
• and
• a trench depth sensor comprising a transmitter element and a receiver element at a fixed position relative to the transmitter element, the trench depth sensor configured to generate a signal indicative a displacement of the ground-engaging component by directly sensing a surface of the ground engaging component.

An agricultural planting machine row unit comprising:

• a trench opener configured to open a trench;
• and
• a trench depth sensing system comprising:
• a capacitive sensor mounted on the trench opener, the capacitive sensor comprising an array of capacitive sensing elements, each capacitive sensing element having a transmitter element driven by an input signal to generate an electric field and a receiver element configured to generate an output signal indicative of dielectric properties of a medium proximate the sensing element;
• and
• a trench depth indication component configured to generate an indication of trench depth based on the output signals from the capacitive sensing elements.