Soil drying during the mid-to-late grain filling stage of rice plants can help reduce yield loss in the ratoon crop caused by mechanical harvesting. A study in China compared light and heavy soil drying treatments and found that heavy drying increased soil hardness but did not affect main crop yield. However, heavy drying significantly increased grain yield in the ratoon crop, leading to a much lower yield loss compared to light drying. This was mainly due to more panicles per square meter in the ratoon crop with heavy drying. Overall, heavy soil drying during the main crop's grain filling stage can effectively reduce yield loss in a mechanized rice ratooning system.