About Manley Farms
The Story
Manley Farms started as a domain name and a dream about owning farmland someday.
I'm Scott - a technologist and media producer based in the Pacific Northwest with more than twenty years building software, video systems, and creative tools. My family has roots in farming on both sides. I grew up around people who worked outside for a living, and some of my earliest good memories are of gardens, orchards, pastures, and rivers. I do not have a farm yet, but I think about one most days.
The tools on this site exist because I kept running into the same pattern. Agriculture is full of hard, specific questions - when is it safe to spray, how much fertilizer do I actually need for this field, is the creek running high enough to irrigate, will a small solar array pay back on this shed - and the answers mostly already exist in public government data. NWS, USGS, USDA, NOAA, NASA. All of it is free. Almost none of it is easy to use.
Meanwhile the ag-tech world has spent the last decade wrapping those same public datasets in paid subscriptions, login walls, and marketing that promises the moon. I don't think the people working the land need more platforms. They need simple tools that answer one question at a time, respect their time, and don't want anything in return.
So that's what Manley Farms is. A practical toolbox. Built one tool at a time. Free, no signup, no tracking, no upsell.
Why I Build This
Two things matter to me, and this project lets me put them together.
The first is good technology. I've spent my career building software that is supposed to help people do real work - broadcast systems, creative tools, small apps, video infrastructure. The best version of that craft is quiet. You use it, it works, you move on with your day. The worst version is loud, needy, and in your way. Ag-tech skews toward the worst version. I want to build the best version.
The second is respect for the people who work outside. The United States runs on the work of farmers, ranchers, loggers, fishermen, prospectors, builders, and anyone else whose day is dictated by weather, water, and light. These are not people who need to be wowed. They need tools that load fast, answer a question accurately, and then get out of the way. That's the standard I try to hold every tool on this site to.
If you're reading this and you work the land, I hope the tools help. If something is wrong, or missing, or could be better, tell me. I read every email.
What's on the Site
The Tools
Eleven free browser-based tools covering spray timing, streamflow, soil, field acreage, markets, almanac, tides, solar, wind, hydro, and fishing. Each one solves a specific on-farm question using current public data.
Browse the ToolsAgricultural Event Monitor
A live map of active wildfires, severe storms, flooding, and other natural events sourced from NASA EONET. Filter by event type, click for details, monitor your region.
Open the DashboardThe Blog
Practitioner-voice articles on precision agriculture, no-till, cover crops, drones, weather stations, and the other technology changing how the land gets worked. No affiliate links, no hype.
Read the BlogComing Next
More tools. Seasonal planning features. Better integration between the tools and the blog. Email notifications when a new tool launches.
The Technology
Every tool on this site runs entirely in your browser. Your inputs - location, acreage, rates, email - stay on your device unless you deliberately send them somewhere. We use open-source mapping (Leaflet with OpenStreetMap), free government APIs (NWS, USGS, USDA, NOAA, NASA), and static hosting. There are no accounts, no cookies beyond what the browser strictly needs, no analytics, no middlemen.
This is deliberate. Privacy isn't a feature we tacked on - it's the default, because the alternative (an ag-tech company harvesting farm operation data) is how the industry's worst practices start.
Contact
Have a suggestion for a tool I should build? Want to report a data issue? Want to tell me a tool helped you on your place? Send a note: hello@manleyfarms.com
If you want to support the work, there's a Buy Me a Coffee button on most pages. It keeps the domain renewed and the tea warm.