Drone Spraying in Limestone County, TX for Hay, Pasture and Wheat

Drone spraying prices in Limestone County

Drone spraying in Limestone County, TX is billed per acre, per pass, application only. Operators listed for the county start at about $12–15 per acre, some with 20- to 30-acre minimums, and Texas per-pass rates for wheat, corn and cotton run $8–21. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Pasture broadleaf weeds	from $12/acre	Spring and fall
Johnsongrass in bermuda hay	from $12/acre	Product by forage type
Wheat fungicide	from $12/acre	Flag leaf
Cotton passes	from $13/acre	Where labeled for aerial use
Brush and fence rows	from $17/acre	Spot and patch work

Fields under 20 acres are billed as 20 acres, and neighbors can share a trip. Product is billed separately. Quotes reflect poultry houses, lakes and creeks nearby, county-line rules and the spray volume on the label.

Cattle, hay and poultry

Limestone County had 1,263 farms on 458,104 acres in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, averaging 363 acres, with sales up 44% to $95.6 million. Livestock and poultry brought in 88%.

Crop or livestock	2022
Hay and forage	27,164 acres
Cotton	3,961 acres
Cattle and calves	76,331 head
Broilers	1.24 million
Sheep	3,596 head
Horses	1,358 head

The county ranked 30th in Texas for poultry and 46th for cattle. Nearly 40% of farms run 50–179 acres, so drone spraying in Limestone County is mostly hay meadows and pasture, with wheat and cotton on the open ground.

Regulated herbicides next door

Limestone County is not one of TDA's regulated-herbicide counties, but three neighbors are. In McLennan and Falls counties, ester formulations of regulated herbicides are banned from April 1 to August 31 and other formulations need a permit in that window. In Robertson County, land west of State Highway 6 needs a permit from April 1 to September 15. Crews confirm which county every field sits in before choosing a product.

Wheat leaf rust timing

AgriLife research shows flag-leaf emergence is the most important fungicide timing for leaf rust, and spraying at topdress rarely pays when rust is the main threat. On susceptible varieties with moderate or heavier rust, a well-timed pass returned 7–26 bushels per acre. Some products restrict grazing for about a week after application, so grazed wheat needs a label check.

Johnsongrass in hay meadows

Johnsongrass grows 3–6 feet tall and spreads by seed and rhizomes. AgriLife's 2026 forage guidance notes that some products are labeled for bermudagrass pastures and hay meadows while others work only in pasture, and several injure or kill bahiagrass. The forage mix and the haying interval decide the product before the flight is booked.

The Navasota and its lakes

The Navasota River rises just north of the county and runs 125 miles, dammed to form Lake Mexia, Lake Groesbeck, Lake Fort Parker and Lake Limestone. Lake Limestone, built by the Brazos River Authority in 1978, covers 12,486 acres across Limestone, Robertson and Leon counties, and Lake Mexia covers about 1,000 acres southwest of Mexia. The NRG Limestone power plant, about 1,700 megawatts, uses Lake Limestone for cooling. Operators map the river, lakes and creeks as no-spray zones.

Fort Parker and the Tehuacana Hills

Fort Parker State Park covers about 1,459 acres around a lake the Civilian Conservation Corps built on the Navasota between 1935 and 1942. Old Fort Parker, built in 1834 near Groesbeck, was raided in 1836, when Cynthia Ann Parker, later mother of Quanah Parker, was taken. The Tehuacana Hills rise about 150 feet above the prairie. Parks and historic sites are mapped as no-spray zones.

The Mexia oil boom

Oil was found near Mexia in 1920, output peaked at 53,000 barrels a day in November 1921, and the town grew from about 3,500 to nearly 35,000 people before martial law was declared in 1922. Old well sites and pipelines still cross many pastures, and crews map them before flying. Mexia's state school began as a 1942 prisoner-of-war camp. Formed in 1846 from Robertson County, the county covers 933 square miles and had 22,146 residents in 2020.

Field conditions

Field condition	Ground sprayer	Spray drone
Wet hay meadows after rain	Ruts	No soil contact
Pastures beside poultry houses	Drift concerns	Mapped buffers
Wheat at flag leaf	Wheel tracks	No crop contact
Odd-shaped fields along creeks	Missed corners	Mapped edges

A Limestone County spray year

Window	Typical drone work
February to March	Winter weeds in pasture and wheat
March to April	Wheat fungicide at flag leaf
May to July	Johnsongrass and weeds in hay meadows
Summer	Cotton passes
Fall	Fall pasture weeds, brush on fence rows

Licensing and airspace

Drone applicators need a Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) commercial applicator license, and the business holds an FAA Part 137 certificate with Part 107 pilots. Mexia-Limestone County Airport sits three miles southwest of Mexia with a 5,000-foot runway, so crews check airspace for fields nearby. The AgriLife office in Groesbeck runs the Quad-County Hay Show and a local beef program.