Ag Drone Spraying in Liberty County, TX for Rice, Hay and Pasture

Ag drone spraying prices in Liberty County

Ag drone spraying in Liberty County, TX is billed per acre, per pass, application only. Operators listed for the county quote $10 to $75 per acre, one-pass rice and row-crop rates run about $8–21, and Texas typical is about $12. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Pasture and hay weeds	from $12/acre	Broadleaves, grassy weeds
Rice insect and disease passes	from $13/acre	Main and ratoon crop
Chinese tallow leaf spray	from $15/acre	Plants under 6–8 feet
Pasture overseeding	from $14/acre	Seed billed separately

Fields under 20 acres are billed as 20 acres, and neighbors can share a trip. Product is billed separately. Quotes reflect water and levees, nearby homes, refuge land and the spray volume on the label.

Hay, cattle and rice

Liberty County had 1,321 farms on 234,400 acres in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, averaging 177 acres, with $40.7 million in sales, 60% from livestock.

Land, crop or livestock	2022
Pasture	123,172 acres
Cropland	66,290 acres
Hay and forage	36,976 acres
Rice	7,350 acres
Sod	940 acres
Cattle	41,968 head

Nearly half of farms run 10–49 acres and only 46 top 1,000. About 10,100 acres are irrigated, most of it rice. Net cash farm income was negative in 2022, at about −$11.4 million, so every input counts. The county ranked 42nd in Texas for hay and other crops. Ag drone spraying in Liberty County covers hay meadows and coastal pasture first, with rice on the irrigated ground.

Rice in the East Zone

AgriLife places Liberty in the East Zone of the Texas rice belt, with Chambers, Jefferson, Brazoria, Galveston, Hardin and Orange counties. Its production guidelines note that flooded seedbeds must be seeded by air, that planting after April 15 lowers ratoon potential, and that blackbirds take about 4–15% of the ratoon crop. Aerial water seeding runs about 120–140 pounds of seed per acre. Rice has always been an aerial crop, and drones now handle smaller checks and field edges.

Rice delphacid

Rice delphacid, first found in Texas in 2015, has been reported in all 19 rice-producing counties and can carry hoja blanca virus. The Rice Foundation reported heavy losses in the 2025 ratoon crop, and AgriLife entomologists say only two insecticides are available, with poor control so far. Scouting and timely, labeled passes are the main tools while research continues at AgriLife's Beaumont center.

Canal water from the Trinity

The Chambers-Liberty Counties Navigation District, created in 1944, covers 185,375 acres in Liberty County. Its Anahuac pump plant lifts Trinity River water about 20 feet into roughly 100 miles of canals and laterals serving rice, crawfish and forage. Rice acres in the district fell from about 36,000 in 1983 to 3,200 by 2000. Operators map canals and laterals as no-spray zones and use only products labeled for use near water.

Chinese tallow in pastures

Chinese tallow infests more than 234,000 acres in southeast Texas, along rice canals, ditches, fence lines and pastures, and resprouts after mowing. AgriLife's Brush Busters method uses a leaf spray on plants under 6–8 feet from May to September, best from July until leaves yellow, with a basal bark spray for larger stems. Seeds travel by water and birds, so treated pastures need checking each year.

Trinity River refuge and floods

The Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge near Liberty has grown from 4,400 acres in 1994 to about 30,000 acres of bottomland hardwood floodplain, and Big Thicket National Preserve fringes Menard Creek as it crosses the county. Hurricane Harvey set the Trinity's record crest of 32.7 feet at the US 90 bridge in Liberty. The refuge and river corridor are mapped as no-spray zones, and bottom pastures that stay wet are treated without ruts.

Fast-growing communities

The county seat, Liberty, dates to 1831; the county covers 1,176 square miles and had 91,628 residents in 2020, and new subdivisions near Cleveland and Plum Grove have added tens of thousands of residents since 2011. Pastures now border homes and roads, so operators map houses and gardens as no-spray zones and fly only with wind blowing away from them.

Field conditions

Field condition	Ground sprayer	Spray drone
Coastal pasture after rain	Ruts, stuck rigs	No soil contact
Flooded rice	Can't enter	Flies above the water
Tallow along canals and fences	Hard access	Mapped edges
Pastures beside new homes	Drift concerns	Mapped buffers

A Liberty County spray year

Window	Typical drone work
March to April	Pasture broadleaf weeds
May to June	Hay meadow weeds, rice passes
July to September	Chinese tallow leaf spray, ratoon rice
Fall	Fall pasture weeds

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. Liberty County is not a regulated-herbicide county, but neighboring Harris County restricts high-volatility herbicides and 2,4-D near susceptible crops. Liberty Municipal and Cleveland Municipal airports have no towers, but Cleveland sits under Houston Approach, so crews check airspace for fields nearby.