[Crops 101] How To Sow & Harvest Carrots

Welcome to your next “Crops 101” lesson of the Farming Simulator Academy! This time, we show you how to plant, harvest, and process carrots.

What Is Special About Carrots?

• After harvesting carrots, the field needs to be plowed again to avoid a yield penalty.
• You can optionally shape ridges before planting. This counts as one fertilization stage and helps you reach the maximum yield.
• Carrots cannot be stored in a regular silo. You can sell them directly, store them in suitable storage, or process them into other products.
• You can use carrots to feed your pigs and horses.

What You Need For Carrots

Growing carrots requires some specialized equipment, especially for planting and harvesting. Since these machines can be expensive, leasing them can be a good option when you are just getting started.

• Tractor: Used to operate most of the following tools.
• Cultivator: Prepares the soil before sowing.
• Ridge former: Shapes ridges before planting. This counts as one fertilization stage and helps increase your yield.
• Planter: Plants carrots and needs to be filled with seeds.
• Fertilizer spreader: Improves your yield. Some spreaders can also apply lime when your field requires it.
• Hoe: Removes weeds before they grow too large and reduce your yield.
• Harvester: A specialized vegetable harvester is required to harvest carrots.
• Trailer: Transports your harvested carrots to a selling point or production facility.

Let’s Get To Work!

If seasonal growth is enabled, you can plant carrots from April until July. Depending on when you plant them, they are ready for harvest between August and November.

Step 1: Applying lime

Your field sometimes needs lime. Check the field information box to see if that’s the case. If you bought the Bredal K105 as your fertilizer spreader, you can use this machine for lime as well.

Step 2: Cultivating the field

Check the field information before you start. If the field needs plowing, attach a plow, otherwise choose a cultivator, lower it into the ground, and work the entire field.

Tip! After harvesting the carrots, you will need to plow the field before the next crop to remove the deep roots.

Want to know more about plowing and cultivating?

Step 3: Shaping ridges (optional)

Attach the ridge former to your tractor and lower it onto the field. Start at one side and work row after row until the entire field is covered with ridges. This step is optional, but it counts as one fertilization stage. If you skip it, you can still reach full fertilization by applying fertilizer twice with a growth stage between both applications.

Step 4: Planting carrots

Fill your planter with seeds and select carrots as the crop. Drive to one side of the field, lower and activate the planter, and cover the entire area row by row.

Our seeding and planting guide covers everything in more detail.

Step 5: Fertilizing

Fill your fertilizer spreader with solid fertilizer, activate it on the field, and cover the entire area. If you shaped ridges earlier, this additional fertilization stage brings you to full fertilization. If you skipped the ridges, apply fertilizer again after the carrots have reached the next growth stage. There has to be a growth stage between both applications.

Tip! If crop destruction is enabled, switch to narrow tires before driving through the field once the carrots have started growing.

Find the full Academy tutorial about fertilizing here.

Step 6: Removing Weeds

Remove weeds as soon as they appear to prevent a yield penalty. Use your hoe while the weeds are still small enough. If they grow too large, you may need a sprayer and herbicide instead.

Check which tools work against the different stages of weeds.

Step 7: Harvesting Carrots

Carrots can be harvested between August and November. Attach your vegetable harvester, lower and activate it, and start harvesting the field row by row. Overload the carrots into a trailer, when the harvester is full.

Step 8: Selling Carrots

Check the prices screen and choose a selling point offering a good price. Drive there with your harvested carrots and unload them in the designated area.

Prices change throughout the year, so you do not have to sell immediately. Just remember that carrots cannot be stored in a regular silo, so you need suitable storage if you want to wait for a better price.

Processing Carrots: Products

Instead of selling carrots directly, you can process them into more valuable products. Deliver them to the preserved food factory to produce preserved carrots or to the soup factory to make carrot soup. Combine carrots with parsnips and red beet at the soup factory to produce triple soup.

Well Done!

Congratulations! You now know the basics of growing and harvesting carrots in Farming Simulator. When you're ready, continue with the next Farming Simulator Academy lesson!