Drone Spraying in Gonzales County, TX for Pasture, Hay and Brush

Drone spraying prices in Gonzales County

Drone spraying in Gonzales County, TX is quoted per acre, application only. Drone operators serving the county charge from $12–15 per acre for application, and the typical Texas drone rate is about $12. Texas A&M AgriLife's 2026 custom rates survey for South Texas puts aerial herbicide at $11.72 per acre and aerial brush work at $13.43. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Hay and pasture insecticide	from $11/acre	Fall armyworm, stem maggot
Pasture broadleaf herbicide	from $12/acre	Croton, ragweed, thistles
Pre-emergent in hay meadows	from $13/acre	Sandbur
Mesquite, huisache and Macartney rose	from $14/acre	Seasonal windows
Liquid fertilizer	from $12/acre	Bermuda and bahia

Fields under 25 acres are billed as 25 acres. Product is billed separately, so you can compare prices with packages that include chemical. Quotes reflect brush density, tree cover, ponds and the spray volume on the label.

Texas's top poultry county, and a big cattle county

Gonzales County ranked first in Texas and fifth in the US for poultry and egg sales in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, and farm sales passed $1 billion. Livestock and poultry made up 96% of that total.

Land use or livestock	2022
Pasture	429,170 acres
Woodland	105,729 acres
Hay and forage	27,810 acres
Cattle	143,254 head
Broilers	16.8 million

Of the county's 1,870 farms, 62% are under 180 acres. Drone spraying in Gonzales County is mostly grass work: protecting hay meadows and keeping pastures open for cattle.

Sandbur and grass weeds in hay meadows

Hay meadows here are often fertilized heavily, and weed control protects that investment. AgriLife options:

• Sandbur, pre-emergent: Prowl H2O on dormant bermudagrass in late winter, with a 40-day haying interval.
• Sandbur, post-emergent: Pastora at 1–1.5 ounces while sandbur is under 1.5 inches, with no grazing or haying restriction.
• Smutgrass: Velpar L at 2.75–4.5 pints per acre, once a year, with a 38-day haying interval.
• Bahiagrass in bermuda: Plateau for suppression, or PastureGard HL with a 14-day haying interval.

Mesquite, huisache and Macartney rose by season

Target	Window	AgriLife note
Mesquite	May–June	88–92% kill on healthy trees in full leaf
Macartney rose	Spring, once soil hits 75°F; again late summer to fall	Pause during flowering and hips
Huisache	September to November	Stop when soil at 12 inches drops below 75°F
Prickly pear	Any season with soil moisture	Pads die over 2–3 years

Brush control in Gonzales County is a multi-year program. Spot treatment of regrowth in years two and three costs far less than the first pass.

Armyworms and stem maggot in bermuda

Fall armyworms overwinter in South Texas, so populations build early. AgriLife's threshold is 3 or more larvae per square foot, and outbreaks often follow rain after a dry spell. Bermudagrass stem maggot is sampled by checking 50 stems at 5–10 spots; at about 16% damaged stems, cut early, then spray a pyrethroid about 7 days after cutting, with a second pass 5–7 days later for heavy infestations.

Small places and shared trips

About 29% of Gonzales County farms are under 50 acres, and many owners work in town or raise broilers full time. Crews confirm gates and boundaries by phone or map pin, group neighboring tracts on the same county road into one morning, and spot-treat scattered brush instead of broadcasting a whole pasture.

Seventy-five soils and two rivers

Gonzales County has 75 soil types on 19 geologic formations, which the Handbook of Texas calls the most varied of any Texas county. Blackland soils fill the river valleys, sandy post oak uplands cover the north and east, and dense mesquite and prickly pear country runs to the south and west.

Field condition	Tractor sprayer	Spray drone
Blackland after rain	Bogs down	No soil contact
Deep sand in post oak country	Slow, stuck rigs	Flies over it
Dense brush	Can't get through	Flies over the canopy
Guadalupe and San Marcos bottoms	Limited access	Flies from the field edge

Poultry houses, homes and rivers

Hundreds of broiler and layer houses sit next to pastures across the county. Operators map poultry houses, fan intakes, homes, wells and stock ponds as no-spray zones and keep coarse droplets and light-wind limits on downwind edges. The Guadalupe and San Marcos rivers meet at Gonzales, and Palmetto State Park lies along the San Marcos near Ottine; both are mapped before the first flight. Texas is a FieldWatch member, so operators check DriftWatch and BeeCheck before every job.

Texas licensing for drone application

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) requires a Commercial Applicator license with the Aerial Application category plus a use category such as Pasture and Rangeland, with yearly continuing education. Gonzales County and its neighbors are not on TDA's regulated-herbicide county list. The FAA requires Part 107, Part 137 and, for drones of 55 pounds or more, a Section 44807 exemption.