You "old" guys talk about itching. I am waiting to hear how someone could be scratching from a close encounter with someone not their wife or girlfriend, sorry, I don't have a personal experience with itching in the lower regions hahahaha.
We used to do custom mechanical cling peach harvesting here. One variety called "Klampt" was downright awful with the peach fuzz. The catching surface of the machines had to be washed down 2x a night, as it was layered on thick and in the evening light, you could see it floating in the air. Add 120 degree heat blowing from the engine, you had a miserable combination. ONLY one thing worse, when the farmer sprayed sulfur dust to combat "Brown Rot". That stuff would get on your skin and dry it out, not to mention we had to wear goggles, as it was so bad sometimes, your sweat would allow it to get into your eyes as well. Yes, at one point in my life I really worked hard! The heat helped me lose 25-30# each summer as well from the harvester. Sorry for drifting off onto another subject!!! JM

A few more pictures of Rice Harvest - not many in my multitudes of photos so enjoy what is here.

Borrowed a photo of a 580Z and bankout wagon.
Cat 3208 power plants in most Ziegenmeyer aka SWECO machinery. They were famous for creating some high dollar machinery for South American rice plantations. One good story was about the HUGE government backed operation that was reclaimed jungle; the “owner” liked the color pink so much, all of his equipment was painted that color as well as his hundreds of employees wore pink coveralls.
The Ziegenmeyer bros. were the “LeTourneau’s” of farm equipment! JM

SWECO - Sutter Welding Equipment Company
They were into some very heavy duty implements as well as Combines and other harvest machinery.
I do not have any pictures of those discs, plows, chisels, etc or would post.

Rice Stature -
Neil, Rice has been extensively cultivated in Northern California since the very early 1900's.
There is a facility near Biggs, California that has been in operation working to "improve" many qualities of this crop.
Straw/stem length has indeed been substantially shortened. Not only in inches but in some cases by feet!
Along with the shorter straw, quicker maturing varieties have been developed, all greatly improving both yield and harvest times.
Seldom are the combines and bankouts working in deep mud. Cats with "blocks" wading through mud and water is now just memories for the old hands.

You can use this link below to see some of the operations of the "Rice Experiment Station" as we have always known it.

rice.ucanr.edu/
CTS

SWECO - Combine and full track Bankout wagon

Sorry for the length you have to go through to find this - best I could do
www.imago-images.com/photos/frances-farmer

CTS

That was "wild" rice per the photo caption (somewhere). Normally harvested when stalks are green and field still has water in in; reason being, if too dry, it would "shatter" which means fall off of the plant, so they would do similar as the natives did in boats, they went in WET. The reel does not appear to be the larger type used for wild rice either, as they were twice the diameter as a regular one. The SWECO folks built a lot of tracked bankout carts as well, a "hightrack" configured unit with the CAT engine tucked under to save space.
These folks also converted some IH and Caterpillar tractors from standard top seat to orchard/tailseat models. The founder was one of several navy veterans that used their skills from service to go on to become successful business people. Bob Z. Sr., was a heck of a smart guy and treated all very well. JM