Data and APIs for growers.
Most of the best agricultural data in the world is public: your tax dollars already paid for it. The catch is that nobody tells you it exists or what it is good for. That is this shelf's whole job. The builder-grade entries also note when a source has an API a small controller or a Home Assistant setup can call directly.
This is one shelf of The Agriculture Resource Library, 47 entries strong. Search every shelf at once in the card catalog, or suggest a resource we missed.
Wire it into your dashboard
Some of these sources are pages you visit. The ones below are feeds a small computer can call: a Home Assistant setup, an ESP32, or a script on the shelf in your barn. Every one is free. Two need no key at all, which makes them the right first wire-up.
- Open-Meteo, no key: the best forecast feed for a grower's dashboard, blending 15+ national weather models, and it serves soil temperature, soil moisture, and reference evapotranspiration alongside the forecast. Home Assistant has a built-in integration; an ESP32 can call it directly. Free for non-commercial use.
- National Weather Service API, no key: the official US forecast and every frost and storm alert, straight from the source. Also a built-in Home Assistant integration. When a freeze warning should turn on your stock-tank heater, this is the feed.
- NASA POWER: solar and agroclimate data for any point on Earth, with an excellent REST API. The right numbers for sizing a solar setup or a greenhouse.
- OpenET, free key: satellite-measured evapotranspiration for your actual fields, monthly, across 48 states. Free irrigation auditing from space.
- USDA NASS Quick Stats, free key: every crop, county, and year of US agricultural statistics, queryable. Benchmark your yields against your own county.
- USDA Market News API, free key: the daily wholesale price reports, as data. Prices flowing into your own spreadsheet instead of price blindness.
- SoilGrids and NRCS Soil Data Access: one-time programmatic lookups of the soil under any point, global and official-US respectively.
- USA-NPN geoservices: accumulated growing degree days and pest-emergence forecast layers for any point, the feed behind "when does this pest hatch at my location."
- The state networks: CIMIS in California, AgWeatherNet in Washington, FAWN in Florida, the Oklahoma Mesonet. Free accounts, station-grade ET and frost data. If you farm in one of these states, the nearest station is better than any model.
Our build configurations show what to do with these once they land in Home Assistant, and the water and crop water stress pages show why evapotranspiration is worth wiring in at all.
The shelf
The full data landscape below: weather and climate, satellites, soil, pests and diagnostics, varieties and seed, markets and prices, and the reference works. Each card says what a grower actually does with the source.
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Frequently asked questions.
Where can I get free weather data for my farm?
Two front doors. The National Weather Service API is free, needs no key, and serves forecasts for any point in the country. Open-Meteo is free for non-commercial use, also keyless, and adds history and agricultural variables like soil temperature and evapotranspiration. Both are on this shelf, and both are friendly enough to wire into a small controller or Home Assistant.
Is there free soil data for my fields?
Yes. USDA's Web Soil Survey maps soil types for nearly every acre in the country, free, from decades of field survey. SoilGrids does the same globally from satellite and model data. Between them you can pull texture, drainage class, and typical properties for any field you farm before you ever pay for a soil test.
Where do I find current crop prices?
USDA Market News publishes wholesale and terminal-market prices for produce, livestock, and grain, updated continuously, free. It is the same feed the big buyers watch. Our card links the grower-friendly front door and notes the API for anyone who wants prices flowing into their own spreadsheet.