About

Homestead Toolbelt is a free, static calculator hub for backyard keepers and small farms. Our mission is simple: turn published agricultural planning rates into plain tools you can use on a phone between chores — and always show the math so you can trust (or question) the result.

Why this exists

Homestead planning questions repeat: how much feed for six layers, how many plants in a 4×8 bed, when to start tomatoes indoors, how many jars a tomato harvest needs. The answers live in extension bulletins and husbandry references, but they are awkward to recompute every season. We package the mid-range planning constants into calculators with unit toggles, printable summaries, and explicit assumptions.

How the calculators are built

Every agricultural constant lives in typed data files — feed rates, spacing tables, incubation days, and the rest — not as magic numbers buried in page markup. Calculator pages import those tables, run the arithmetic in your browser, and list the assumptions beside the results. Worked examples in the data comments are how we check that a code change still matches the intended formula.

That data-first approach means corrections happen in one place. When an extension-style standard should update, we change the data file and every tool that reads it moves together. We prefer boring, documented mid-range values over flashy guesses.

What we believe about trust

Trust comes from showing the numbers. Black-box "smart" recommendations without rates or sources do not belong on a farm planning site. We would rather say "layers ≈ 0.25 lb feed/bird/day in our table" than imply a personalized oracle. Your land still needs local judgment — which is why every calculator carries the line: estimates only — consult your local extension office for advice specific to your land and animals.

What we are not

We are not a veterinary service, a substitute for your county extension office, a soil laboratory, or a structural engineering firm. We are not a social network and we do not sell your flock plan. Ads and the occasional relevant affiliate link help keep the tools free; they do not alter formulas.

Technical shape

The site is static: HTML, CSS, and a little client-side TypeScript, deployable to Cloudflare Pages. No account database, no server-side calculator API. That keeps the tools fast, private by default, and usable offline once cached by your browser.

Corrections and contact

If you have a primary extension source for a better mid-range value, send the citation via Contact (hello@homesteadtoolbelt.com). We review changes against the data files and the need to keep assumptions visible on the page.

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