Fertilizer Spreaders/Farming Simulator 15
A Fertilizer Speader (not to be confused with a Fertilizer Sprayer) is a piece of equipment that can cover a field with Solid Fertilizer. This doubles the field's Crop yield. Fertilizer Spreaders are small and cheap, but the fertilizer they use is expensive.
There are only two Fertilizer Spreaders in the base game, and the only substantial differences between them are their capacity and hitch type.
List of Fertilizer Spreaders
| Spreader | Price ($) |
Maintenance ($ / day) |
Capacity (liters) |
Working Width (m) |
Max. Working Speed (km/h) |
Front Hitch |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
14,600 | 10 | 3,000 | 26.0 | 20 | Three-point hitch |
 |
48,000 | 40 | 8,200 | 26.0 | 20 | Drawbar (Bolt) |
Overview
Fertilizer Spreaders are machines that can be filled up with Solid Fertilizer, and then taken to a field where they will distribute it onto the soil. The fertilizer material itself is a mix of mineral compounds that are highly nutritious to plants. Any patch of field covered with this material will yield double the normal amount of fruit, when harvested.
There are only two Fertilizer Spreaders available in the game, and both are quite cheap compared to the benefits they bring. A Fertilizer Spreader consists primarily of a large tank that can be attached to a Tractor. The machine also has a pair of propeller-like devices at the rear, which are meant to spread the fertilizer when activated.
Fertilizer Spreaders must be filled with Solid Fertilizer in order to work. This type of fertilizer is available in infinite quantities at the blue Fertilizer Tank, which can be found at your farm as well as the Garden Center. However, every liter of Fertilizer you take from the tank costs money.
Once dragged out to a field and activated, the Fertilizer Spreader will continuously expend its supply of Fertilizer. Any ground within its working arc (a 26 meter wide arc behind the Spreader) will become fertilized instantly. Fertilizer Spreaders do not care whether the ground they are working has already been fertilized - they will continue expending Solid Fertilizer until they are turned off.
A Fertilizer Spreader can cover an entire field very rapidly, due to its large working width. Even the smaller of the two models available in the base game can cover about a hectare before it needs to be refilled.
Among other types of fertilization machines, Fertilizer Spreaders are the quickest and most efficient on smaller fields, despite the cost of the Solid Fertilizer itself. However, because they can only refill in specific locations on the map, they may be far less effective on larger fields where they may need to be refilled several times.
Filling with Fertilizer
Once a Fertilizer Spreader has been attached to a towing vehicle, it needs to be filled with Solid Fertilizer before it can start working.
Filling can only occur at a blue Fertilizer Tank. There are two such tanks on each map: one at your farm, and the other at the Garden Center. They should be quite visible from a distance, due to their striking color.
To fill the Fertilizer Spreader, tow it right up next to the tank, and hit the refill button. Refilling will automatically stop when the tank is full, or if you pull the Spreader away from the tank. You can also stop it manually, by hitting the refill button again.
Each liter of Solid Fertilizer you purchase costs around $3.2. Therefore, the Amazone ZA-M 1501 can be filled for about $9600, while the ZG-B 8200 can be filled for about $26,240. These are not trivial costs in the early game, but they are often worth it, since the fertilizer will double the yield of the crops and therefore double the profits. Remember that you can always stop the filling process partway through, if you're afraid to run out of money.
Solid Fertilizer is always available, an important advantage over Slurry and Manure. However, both these types of fertilizer are, essentially, free of charge.
Fertilizing the Field
As long as the Fertilizer Spreader's tank contains at least 1 liter of Solid Fertilizer, and is attached to a towing vehicle, it can be activated.
As soon as the Spreader is activated, it will immediately begin dispensing Fertilizer within its working area. It will expend 7.2 liters of Fertilizer per second, until it runs out. The Fertilizer Spreader does not care whether it is currently on a field, nor whether that field is already fertilized - it will continue expending its fertilizer until turned off.
The working area of either Fertilizer Spreader is in the shape of an arc. The sides of the arc extend outwards 45 degrees to either side of the machine. The widest part of the arc is 26.0 meters wide. Any piece of field within that area will instantly become fertilized. A piece of field that was already fertilized does not gain any additional benefit from being fertilized again, but the Fertilizer Spreader does not care - it will expend fertilizer anyway.
Fertilization can be performed at any time, but will only affect the next crop that becomes ripe on the fertilized field. That crop will give double yields, and the soil underneath it will become immediately unfertilized. Therefore, you may postpone your fertilization until just before the field becomes ripe, and still get the same results as if you had fertilized the field before it was even sowed. However, if you fertilize a field when it already contains ripened crops, those crops will not give a double yield - but the next harvest will. Until a crop becomes ripe on top of it, fertilized soil will not become unfertilized no matter what you do to it.
Hired Workers
You may use Hired Workers to operate a Fertilizer Spreader.
Hired Workers will give perfect coverage of the field when using the Amazone ZA-M 1501, but only when it is attached to the front side of the tractor. With a rear-mounted ZA-M 1501, or an AMAZONE ZG-B 8200, Hired Workers will miss small parts at the end of the field on every pass.
Note that Hired Workers can continue working when they run out of Solid Fertilizer in the tank. However, once the tank is empty, the Hired Worker will automatically purchase more Solid Fertilizer as necessary, at a much higher price than normal. Since Solid Fertilizer is already quite expensive, this can end up costing you a lot of money.
The solution is to either use automated Fertilizer Spreaders only on limited-size fields, or make sure to dismiss the Hired Worker and go refill the tank every time it runs out.
Refilling
In the Bjornholm map, few fields are too large for an AMAZONE ZG-B 8200 to fertilize in one go, and most fields can be covered even on a single Amazone ZA-M 1501 tank.
However on Westbridge Hills, many fields are too large to be fully covered with even a full ZG-B 8200 tank. In this case, you may need to refill the device at least once to cover the entire field.
This presents a problem, since there are only two refilling points on the map. You would need to drive all the way to the refilling point, and then back to the field, taking quite a bit of extra time and effort.
There is no way to fill the Fertilizer Spreaders from any other source. There is no way to fill a "secondary" tank with Solid Fertilizer and drive it to the field where it can serve as such a refilling point. This is another important disadvantage that the Fertilizer Spreaders have in comparison to some other fertilization devices.