Crop Spraying in Eastland County, TX for Pasture, Hay and Brush

Crop spraying prices in Eastland County

Crop spraying in Eastland County, TX by drone is quoted per acre, application only; herbicide, insecticide or pellets are billed separately. Texas drone listings start around $12 per acre, and Texas A&M AgriLife's 2026 custom rate survey put aerial herbicide work at a statewide average of $12.64 and aerial brush spraying at $19.08. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Armyworm and grasshopper insecticide	from $11/acre	Bermuda hay and wheat pasture
Pasture weed control	from $12/acre	Broomweed, ragweed, thistles
Post oak pellet broadcast	from $14/acre	Dry spreader, October–March
Mesquite leaf spray	from $17/acre	4–5+ gal/acre carrier

Each visit carries a $300 minimum. Brush rates rise with canopy density, tree height and the carrier volume on the label. Old oilfield pads, lines and rough ranch roads are mapped first and reflected in the quote.

Eastland County is grass, cattle and oak

Livestock brought in 88% of Eastland County's $37 million in farm sales in the 2022 Census of Agriculture. Pasture covers 351,799 acres, about 68% of farmland, and woodland another 67,559 acres. Hay and forage are the main crop at 24,371 acres, followed by about 3,400 acres of wheat. The county carries roughly 37,500 cattle, 4,200 goats and 2,200 sheep.

Most spraying jobs in the county are on grass: improving bermuda and native pastures, holding back post oak and mesquite, and protecting hay and wheat pasture from armyworms.

Post oak and blackjack oak control with pellets

In the West Cross Timbers, post oak and blackjack oak resprouts crowd out grass on sandy ground around Rising Star, Cisco and Carbon. AgriLife's 2026 chemical weed and brush control guide lists tebuthiuron 20% pellets broadcast at 10 pounds of product per acre (2 pounds of active ingredient) from October 1 to April 1, with the best results on coarse, sandy soils.

A drone fitted with a dry spreader handles this job well:

• Even pellet distribution on rough, hilly pasture without driving over stumps and gullies.
• Mapped no-spread zones around homes, ponds, pecan trees and shade trees you want to keep, since tebuthiuron moves with soil water to tree roots.
• Records of exactly where pellets landed, useful when results show up over the next one to two seasons.

Broomweed, ragweed and spring pasture weeds

Weed	Timing	Approach from AgriLife guidance
Annual broomweed	Spring, under 4 inches tall	2,4-D at 16–32 oz/acre
Western ragweed	Spring, 4–6 inches tall	2,4-D or dicamba:2,4-D
Perennial broomweed	Fall or spring	Picloram-based products
Thistles	Rosette stage	2,4-D or picloram mixes

AgriLife recommends 2–4 gallons per acre for aerial weed sprays and at least 4–5 gallons for brush, rising toward 10 gallons under dense canopy. In areas with 25 inches or more of rain, amine formulations of 2,4-D are preferred over esters.

Fall armyworm in hay and wheat pasture

Fall armyworms move into Central Texas hay meadows and wheat pasture after late-summer rains. AgriLife's threshold is 2–3 larvae half an inch or longer per square foot, scouted in early morning or late evening. If the hay is close to cutting, an early harvest can be the better choice. When spraying is needed, a drone can treat a meadow the same day it is scouted, before the worms strip it.

Wheat pasture for grazing

Much of the county's wheat is planted in early fall for winter grazing, and stocker cattle are on it from November to March. Insect and weed passes on grazed wheat must follow the label's grazing interval, so the operator plans flights around when cattle are rotated off. Drones also avoid tracking up wet wheat pasture during winter rains, which keeps the stand thick for spring grazing.

Mesquite and juniper

Mesquite responds best to leaf sprays on healthy, fully leafed trees in late spring and early summer; drought-stressed trees take up less herbicide. Redberry and Ashe juniper are a different case: AgriLife lists only individual-plant treatments such as hexazinone or picloram for them, so juniper is usually handled by ground crews or mechanically, while drones treat the mesquite and weeds between the cedars.

Old oilfields, lakes and ranch roads

The Ranger and Desdemona oil booms of 1917–1922 left wells, pads, tank batteries and power lines across many Eastland County pastures. Operators map these as obstacles with safety buffers before every flight. Lake Leon, Lake Cisco and Olden Lake, along with stock ponds and creeks, are mapped as no-spray zones with the buffers each label requires. Crews haul water in a trailer tank, so remote pastures off I-20 and SH-6 do not need a nearby well.

Texas licensing for drone application

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) licenses drone applicators. Commercial operators hold a TDA Commercial Applicator license with the Aerial Application category plus a use category such as Pasture and Rangeland. Eastland County and its neighbors are not on TDA's list of regulated-herbicide counties, so 2,4-D products need no county permit here. The FAA requires Part 107, Part 137 and, for drones of 55 pounds or more, a Section 44807 exemption. Texas is a FieldWatch partner state, and operators check DriftWatch and BeeCheck before each job.