[Ground Working 101] Improving Yield

Welcome to the Farming Simulator Academy! We show you what you need to know about improving yield. Let’s take a look.

Types of Yield Improvement

There are multiple ways to take care of your field to increase its yield. To get as much income from your crops as possible, you should keep them in mind.

Fertilizing

Fertilizing is essential as it’s the most impactful measure you can take to increase yield. You can fertilize up to two times per crop cycle, but there has to be one growth stage in between. 

There are multiple ways to fertilize: with liquid or solid fertilizer from the shop, or manure and slurry produced by your animals. 

Tip! Use a spreader for solid, and a sprayer for liquid fertilizer!

You can also get one stage of fertilization by planting oilseed radish. This so-called catch crop can’t be harvested, but you cultivate over the oilseed when it’s fully grown, so it fertilizes the soil. Then, you plant your regular crop.

Removing Weeds

Removing weeds is also important as they lower the yield quite heavily. When first appearing, it’s easily removed with a mechanical weeder. But, that does not work with potatoes and crops that are planted in rows. With those crops, weeds are removed using a hoe. You should remove weeds right away - as they grow bigger, soon. 

If they’ve grown higher, you need a more expensive sprayer to apply herbicide. This works for all crops. But, keep in mind: Even when removing weeds using a sprayer, the application of herbicide itself comes with a small yield penalty. Find out more about weeding in our respective tutorial!

Liming

Liming the fields is also essential to improve plant growth. Lime has to be spread after every three harvests. The field information will tell you when it’s time. You can also see it on the map screen when using the soil composition filter. It’ll tell you when it’s time to plow, too.

Plowing

Plowing is required after harvesting root crops like corn, potatoes, sugar beets and sugar cane. You have to get deep into the ground to get rid of the roots. 

Tip! We cover the differences between plowing and cultivating, including the various tools, in a separate tutorial.

Mulching

Mulching is required when stubble is left on the field after harvesting. Use a mulcher before you cultivate the field again for a 2,5% yield improvement.

Soil Rolling

Soil rollers are used after sowing, when the field is cultivated. With a roller, you condense the soil, and therefore increase its quality to increase the yield by 2,5%. Small stones get pushed back into the soil, so they don't damage your harvester later.

Well done!

Congratulations, you now know the most important facts about yield improvement. Take your time and start on the next lesson, when you’re ready. Stay with the Farming Simulator Academy and you become a top-notch virtual farmer in no time!