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The push toward precision agriculture is increasingly driven by environmental considerations alongside economic pressures, fueling progress in variable-rate fertilization (VRF) technology. Although centrifugal fertilizer spreaders offer benefits such as mechanical simplicity, low cost, and high throughput, non-homogeneous spread patterns are becoming a primary obstacle to their broader use. An urgent investigation is therefore required into how particles behave and what variability patterns emerge when centrifugal VRF spreaders operate under multi-pass overlapped application, to boost both evenness of coverage and field accuracy. This paper examined and assessed the operational characteristics of a custom-built centrifugal VRF spreader that uses real-time crop status data for rice and wheat, applying the collection tray protocols detailed in ISO 5690 and ASAE S341.2 (1999). Distribution uniformity was evaluated by calculating the coefficient of variation (CV) from weighed fertilizer captured in standardized trays, thereby gauging the evenness of the applied spread profile. The obtained data indicated effective swath widths of 21.05, 22.58, and 23.67 m corresponding to target application dosages of 225, 300, and 375 kg/ha, respectively. In practice, multi-pass, overlapped spreading tended to deliver application amounts exceeding the intended rates, with within-swath CVs of 11.51, 9.25, and 11.28% for each respective dosage level. Field-based assessments of multi-pass, overlapped operations recorded a mean discrepancy of 4.54% between delivered and target rates, along with a mean lateral distribution CV of 11.94% across the implement’s working span, results that align with the performance criteria for transverse particle placement using centrifugal broadcasters. The insights generated by this work provide a conceptual reference point for the design refinement and technological evolution of centrifugal VRF equipment, carrying considerable applied and societal value in hastening their integration into everyday precision farming practice.