Farming Simulator 22: Complete Guide

A player's guide to Farming Simulator 22: picking a map and start, early money, the field-work cycle and yield bonuses, seasons, animals, production chains, the expansions, and whether it's still worth playing now that Farming Simulator 25 is out.

Researched September 2026 — FS22 is feature-complete (last paid content: Farm Production Pack, April 30, 2024). Its successor, Farming Simulator 25, launched November 12, 2024. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

Pick "New Farmer" for your first save. You start with a farm, some machines and owned fields, and the game eases you in. "Farm Manager" and "Start from Scratch" are for players who already know the loop.
Contracts (missions) are the best early money. NPC farmers pay you to harvest, sow, fertilize, bale, mow and so on. They often lend you the machines, and you keep a share of the crop.
Rent before you buy. Leasing a specialized machine for one job is far cheaper than owning something you'll use twice a year.
Check the calendar before planting. Seasons are on by default. Each crop has sowing and harvest windows (shown in the menu's calendar), and nothing grows in winter.
Store crops and sell at the peak. Prices change through the year. Put grain in silos and sell when the price chart peaks.
Yield bonuses add up. Lime, two fertilizer stages, weed control, rolling, plowing (or its alternatives) and mulching each add yield.
Hire helpers for boring work. AI workers charge by the hour but free you up to run multiple fields.
Try the free DLC and ModHub. Precision Farming and packs like Straw Harvest are free through the in-game ModHub, alongside thousands of GIANTS-tested mods.

Maps and Start Modes

Map	Setting	Good for
Elmcreek	US Midwest	Big fields, big machines. Beginner-friendly
Haut-Beyleron	Southern France	Vineyards and olive orchards, smaller fields
Erlengrat	Alpine	Hilly animal farming, a challenge
Silverrun Forest (Platinum Expansion)	Pacific Northwest forestry	Forestry-focused play
Zielonka (Premium Expansion)	Central Europe (Poland)	Varied fields, root crops

Start mode	Money	Farm/fields/machines	Difficulty
New Farmer	Moderate	Yes	Easiest
Farm Manager	More money	No farm, fields or machines	Medium
Start from Scratch	Little	Nothing, and prices are harsher	Hardest

First Hours: A Money Plan

Do the tutorial hints on New Farmer.
Take harvest and baling contracts on nearby fields. Use leased or lent machinery.
Sell the harvest from your own fields, but store grain if the price is low.
Buy a second field next to your farm once you have spare cash. Fewer transport trips means more profit.
Get a mid-sized tractor, cultivator, seeder and trailer as your core fleet. Rent harvesters and headers until you have several fields of the same crop.
Add one production chain or animal type you enjoy (see below).

The Field Cycle

Step	Machine	Why
1. Harvest	Combine/harvester + header	Collect the crop
2. Mulch stubble (optional)	Mulcher	Removes stubble for a yield bonus, and lets you replant without plowing on some crops
3. Cultivate or plow	Cultivator / plow / disc harrow	Prepares the soil. Plowing clears the "plowing needed" state
4. Remove stones (if enabled)	Stone picker	Stones damage your tools, so clear them before working the field
5. Lime (every few harvests)	Lime spreader	Fixes soil pH and adds a yield bonus
6. Sow / plant	Seeder / planter	Within the crop's calendar window
7. Roll	Roller	Yield bonus
8. Weed control	Weeder (early) or sprayer + herbicide	Weeds cut yield
9. Fertilize ×2	Spreader (solid), sprayer (liquid), slurry/manure	Two fertilizer stages give the biggest bonus
10. Wait, then harvest		Check the growth stage in the field info

Tip: field info (the map overlay or on-screen field info) shows what each field still needs. Aim to have every box ticked before harvest.

Plowing, weeds, stones and lime can each be switched off in game settings if you want a more relaxed farm.

Crops at a Glance

Cereals and oilseeds: wheat, barley, oat, canola, sunflower, soybean, maize (corn), sorghum. Easy and flexible.
Root crops: potatoes and sugar beet need special planters and harvesters. Premium Expansion adds carrots, parsnips and red beet.
Special crops: sugarcane, cotton (needs a dedicated cotton harvester), grapes and olives (orchard/vineyard machines), poplar (energy wood).
Grass and silage: mow, ted, windrow, then bale or ferment into silage. Needed for cows and sheep.
Oilseed radish: a catch crop that acts as fertilizer.
Greenhouses grow vegetables and strawberries year-round with water. Beehives make honey passively.

Seasons

Growth follows the months. Some crops need a whole year and others only a few months. The Calendar screen shows every crop's sowing and harvest windows.
Winter: snow, nothing grows. Use it for forestry, contracts (when available), animal care and selling stored produce.
Days per month can be raised in settings to give you more real time per season.
Grass keeps growing through the warm months, so there are multiple cuts per season.

Animals

Animal	Needs	Produces
Cows	Grass/hay/silage or TMR, water, straw bedding	Milk, manure/slurry, sellable animals
Sheep	Grass/hay, water	Wool, lambs
Pigs	Mixed feed (grain, protein, roots)	Slurry, sellable pigs
Chickens	Grain	Eggs
Horses	Hay, oats, water, riding/cleaning	Sold at a higher value when well cared for

A feed mixer wagon making TMR (hay, silage, straw and mineral feed) gives the best cow productivity.
Productivity drops when food, water or straw run low, so check the animal screen weekly.
Animals need care every in-game day, which pairs well with a smaller field operation.

Production Chains

Place production buildings (or use the ones already on the map) to turn raw crops into higher-value goods.

Chain	Input	Output
Grain mill	Cereals	Flour
Bakery	Flour, sugar, eggs, butter etc.	Bread, cakes
Dairy	Milk	Butter, cheese
Sugar mill	Sugar beet / sugarcane	Sugar
Oil mill	Canola, sunflower, olives	Oils
Spinnery + tailor	Cotton, wool	Fabric, clothes
Sawmill + carpenter	Wood	Planks, furniture
Grape processing	Grapes	Grape products such as raisins and grape juice (check the building's recipe list)

Rule of thumb: production chains make the most money when you supply them from your own fields and sell the finished goods. Buying inputs at market price usually wipes out the margin.

The Farm Production Pack (April 2024) adds wind turbines and solar panels for passive income, customizable sheds, new selling points with dynamic prices and daily demands (vending machines, market stalls, supermarket, farm store), a distribution center and the Lely Sphere.

Expansions and Free Content

Content	Type	Highlights
Precision Farming	Free (ModHub)	Soil sampling, variable-rate fertilizing, economic tracking
Platinum Expansion (Nov 15, 2022)	Paid	Forestry focus, Silverrun Forest map, forestry machines
Premium Expansion (Nov 14, 2023)	Paid	Zielonka map, carrots/parsnips/red beet, new machines
Straw Harvest Pack	Free (ModHub, Jan 2024)	Straw pellet industry, KRONE Premos 5000 mobile pellet harvester, balers
Farm Production Pack	Paid (Apr 30, 2024)	Energy, storage, distribution and selling points

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Buying a whole fleet on day one. Loans have interest, and machines lose value. Lease specialist gear.
Planting outside the window. Out-of-season crops don't grow. Check the calendar.
Selling at harvest time. Prices are often lowest then. Store and wait.
Skipping lime and the second fertilizer pass. These are cheap yield gains.
Buying fields far from your farm. Transport time kills profit.
Starting animals with no feed plan. Grow or buy feed before buying livestock.
Letting helpers run all night on low-value fields. Wages add up.
Mixing lots of mods on your main save. Mods can conflict. Test them on a separate save first.

Advanced Tips

Crop rotation for easy money: a simple cereal/canola loop on big Elmcreek fields, with lime and two fertilizer passes, is the classic reliable earner.
Mulch instead of plowing on suitable crops to cut down field passes.
Bale and store straw. It's bedding for animals, input for Straw Harvest pellets, and sellable.
Use silos as a price bank. Watch the in-game Prices screen for the season's high point.
GPS mods: FS22 doesn't include auto-steer. Popular ModHub mods such as Courseplay, AutoDrive and Guidance Steering add it. Check the ModHub for the current versions.
Multiplayer: FS22 supports cross-platform multiplayer, which makes it easy to split jobs between farmers.
Precision Farming pays off on large operations because you only spend fertilizer and lime where the soil needs it.

FS22 or FS25?

Farming Simulator 25 (November 12, 2024) adds rice farming, water buffalo, a new engine (GIANTS Engine 10) with better weather, ground deformation, and built-in GPS steering (which FS22 only gets through mods). Its maps are Riverbend Springs, Hutan Pantai and a reimagined Zielonka. FS22 is still worth playing if you want its big mod library and paid expansions at low sale prices, or a game that runs on older hardware. New paid content now goes to FS25.

FAQ

What's the best map for beginners? Elmcreek. Flat, big fields and easy logistics.

How do I make money fast early? Contracts. Take harvesting and baling missions with lent machines, then reinvest in nearby fields.

Why aren't my crops growing? Check that you planted inside the crop's calendar window and that it isn't winter. Growth also depends on seasons being enabled.

Can I turn off plowing, stones or weeds? Yes. Each can be disabled in the game settings.

Is there auto-steer or GPS? Not in vanilla FS22. Use ModHub mods like Guidance Steering, AutoDrive or Courseplay.

Is FS22 still getting updates? It's in maintenance. The last paid content was the Farm Production Pack (April 30, 2024), and GIANTS' new content now goes to FS25.

Does multiplayer work across platforms? Yes, FS22 supports cross-platform multiplayer.