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.

Sources

• Farming Simulator 22 on Steam (store and announcements)
• Farm Production Pack on Steam
• Farming Simulator — Wikipedia (FS22 expansions, FS25 release)
• Farming Simulator 25 on Steam
• Official Farming Simulator site