I’m curious there. I’ve seen rice paddies plowed in Vietnam and the tractors used wide paddle-like wheels. I saw two varieties: one with what looked like more normal wheels but much wider, and one which was of metal with fins, very much akin to a paddle steamer, though still with some kind of flat surface that must have distributed weight.

Would they be more effective with thin wheels? Both humans and cattle seem to sink in a few inches and stop; I don’t know what’s under the layer of mud and what makes up a rice paddy.

What I saw was in Taiwan, but I guess it must depends on the depth of the mud and the nature of what's below.