I bought some land in San Marcos that has it. They had someone with cattle on it but he moved on.

Does anyone have expertise on ways to keep an Ag exemption?

anyone have cattle they want to run in Central Tx?

Call the county and they will tell you what you need to do. From what I have seen, bees is the absolute easiest and smallest operation you can have to get and/or maintain ag exemption, but every county is probably different.

Probably better to do a search on the OB.

If it was in ag, you should be able to move it to wildlife, but rules are different county by county. Wildlife is pretty easy to maintain.

Idk how many acres he has, but the county i was looking at had a minimum size to go wildlife exemption that was 2.5x the lot size for Ag.

Dr T and the Women said:

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I bought some land in San Marcos that has it. They had someone with cattle on it but he moved on.

Does anyone have expertise on ways to keep an Ag exemption?

anyone have cattle they want to run in Central Tx?

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What part of SM?

OP you really need to post this on OB. They have regular threads on this. I'd say search the forum but the search function is not great.

The county should have exactly what info he needs and if the office is worth a damn, someone who will talk to him about it. They should have a document saying exactly how many cattle/goats/whatever he would need to exempt the whole acreage, or what would need to be done for hay production, or how many bee hives he would need to keep, or what he would need for a timber exemption. The county is the direct source. For instance in the county inwas looking at, 6 hives would exempt 5 acres, then each additional 2 hives would exempt another 5 acres. For cattle it was something like 4 head for the first 5 and then 2 more for each 5 after that. Cant recall exactly. The only issue with the cattle was that you could only get exemptions for what was fenced when it came to livestock. You couldn't put more cattle in one area that met the numbers necessary and get exemptions for land outside the fenced portion. Thats the kind of stuff the county should be able to tell him. OB of course will have some good info, but the best information is going to come directly from the county because it doesn't matter what anyone there days if it doesn't meet the county requirements.

It's been well documented that many counties are not fully complying with state law. State laws matters not county.

For example many counties want certain acreage minimum but state law never requires that. I personally would not rely exclusively on a county.

The county CAD is the one granting your ag exemption so id imagine what they think about the subject matters a bit.

Years ago we moved a tract from ag to wildlife in Grimes Co. The county extension agent was a huge help in the process. You might talk the agent in that county.

Watch out. You have to apply for your own ag exemption soon after buying or you will lose the exemption AND owe 3 years of roll back taxes possibly. This can be huge.
Find a local rancher to lease it is the simplest way. Ask the local feed store for a recommendation
If that doesn't happen, put some bought cows on it. Would be much cheaper than the tax bill. But if it has a decent fence and water, you should have no problem finding someone to lease it.

Thank you all for the advice. I appreciate you

Rollback taxes are terrible. I don't know how that ever got passed into law but it seems ridiculous to me.

Dr T and the Women said:

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I bought some land in San Marcos that has it. They had someone with cattle on it but he moved on.

Does anyone have expertise on ways to keep an Ag exemption?

anyone have cattle they want to run in Central Tx?

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I acquired some ag exempt property in Hays County last year. I'm using Plateau Land and Wildlife Management to handle the ag exemptions for me as that's who a previous owner used.

If the land is already under ag exemption, you can maintain the ag exemption with wildlife, which is probably the easiest method. If the land is not currently under ag exemption, you have to produce an ag product (crop, meat, honey, etc.) for 5 years to earn the exemption.

Whether maintaining an existing exemption, or earning a new one, you'll want to make sure you're doing everything correctly as Hays County is not as forgiving of mistakes in the process as other Texas counties my family has worked with. I haven't had any issues with Hays, but the previous owner of one of the tracts I acquired lost the ag exemption on that tract through a paperwork submission error.

TxAg20 said:

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Dr T and the Women said:

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I bought some land in San Marcos that has it. They had someone with cattle on it but he moved on.

Does anyone have expertise on ways to keep an Ag exemption?

anyone have cattle they want to run in Central Tx?

---

I acquired some ag exempt property in Hays County last year. I'm using Plateau Land and Wildlife Management to handle the ag exemptions for me as that's who a previous owner used.

If the land is already under ag exemption, you can maintain the ag exemption with wildlife, which is probably the easiest method. If the land is not currently under ag exemption, you have to produce an ag product (crop, meat, honey, etc.) for 5 years to earn the exemption.

Whether maintaining an existing exemption, or earning a new one, you'll want to make sure you're doing everything correctly as Hays County is not as forgiving of mistakes in the process as other Texas counties my family has worked with. I haven't had any issues with Hays, but the previous owner of one of the tracts I acquired lost the ag exemption on that tract through a paperwork submission error.

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Very helpful

Are they reasonable in fees?

I'm actually in Guadalupe county

Right at the border

Hay exemption is pretty easy as well. Just let someone cut it and they can have it.

$1,300 to re-file (new owner) wildlife exemption plans on 2 tracts and submit annual application to get another tract into ag exempt status.

Dr. T. I work for Plateau Land & Wildlife Management as the Central Texas Region Manager. Go to the Meet the Team page at plateauwildlife.com find my email address and holler at me. I know this stuff. I'd be happy to guide you!

JMH said:

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Dr. T. I work for Plateau Land & Wildlife Management as the Central Texas Region Manager. Go to the Meet the Team page at plateauwildlife.com find my email address and holler at me. I know this stuff. I'd be happy to guide you!

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thanks.. just sent you an email

Spoony Love said:

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Hay exemption is pretty easy as well. Just let someone cut it and they can have it.

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I believe that to get the ag valuation, a profit motif must be shown.

You have to keep books but not required to profit. You can have a operating loss

SteveBott said:

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You have to keep books but not required to profit. You can have a operating loss

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Agree, but per state website you must have profit motive. Where's the profit motive when you give the hay away?
I'm just trying to understand.

It all comes down to details. Give hay away but get so many feet of fence redone? Business transaction and improve your Ag production ability