Drone Spraying in Harrison County, TX for Hay, Pasture and Ponds

Drone spraying prices in Harrison County

Drone spraying in Harrison County, TX is quoted per acre, application only. Operators serving the county quote $10–75 per acre, with several East Texas operators starting at $12. Texas A&M AgriLife's 2026 custom rates for East Texas put aerial herbicide at $11.67 per acre, aerial insecticide or fungicide at $11.78 and aerial brush work at $23.20. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Pasture broadleaf herbicide	from $11/acre	Dogfennel, croton, bitterweed
Hay insecticide	from $11/acre	Armyworm, stem maggot
Fertilizer and seeding	from $14/acre	Bermuda and bahia
Brush and saplings	from $20/acre	Yaupon, sweetgum, tallow
Ponds and shorelines	from $25/acre	Quoted after a site check

Fields under 20 acres are billed as 20 acres. Product is billed separately. Quotes reflect tree cover, ponds, homes and the spray volume on the label.

Small farms in the Piney Woods

Harrison County had 1,015 farms on 121,801 acres in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, with a median size of about 46 acres; 53% of farms are under 50 acres. Livestock brought in 63% of sales.

Land use or livestock	2022
Pasture	47,825 acres
Woodland	40,228 acres
Cropland	26,501 acres
Hay and forage	19,990 acres
Cattle	21,767 head

A third of farmland is woods, so most pastures are small openings ringed by pine and hardwood. Drone spraying in Harrison County fits those tight, irregular fields and the ponds that dot nearly every place.

Pasture weed timing in East Texas

East Texas AgriLife guidance splits weeds by life cycle:

• Annuals (bitterweed, woolly croton, buttercup): spray in late April and May while they're small; July sprays work poorly.
• Perennials (dogfennel, ironweed, broomweed, dewberry): spray at bloom, or in late summer to early fall.
• Drought: skip spraying drought-stressed weeds, which don't take up herbicide well.
• Clover: products with picloram carry replant restrictions, so plan around clover seeding.

Bermudagrass stem maggot and armyworms

Bermudagrass stem maggot has been in Texas since 2012. Larvae kill the top two or three leaves, so hay meadows look frost-burned, while grazed pastures rarely show it. Labeled pyrethroids include beta-cyfluthrin, lambda-cyhalothrin and zeta-cypermethrin; AgriLife notes there's no set threshold, so the call depends on how close the field is to cutting. Fall armyworms move into bermuda from July to October and are treated when counts climb.

Yaupon, sweetgum and tallow

Pastures here are always fighting the woods. Yaupon, sweetgum saplings, Chinese tallow and blackberry creep in from fence lines and tree edges. Drones spot-treat individual plants from mapped coordinates and broadcast dense regrowth, keeping spray off the timber you want to keep. Treating saplings while they are small costs far less than clearing them once they shade out the grass.

Ponds, Caddo Lake and aquatic permits

Caddo Lake on the county's northeast edge has fought giant salvinia for years; it covered more than 6,000 acres in 2017. Treating water follows its own rules:

1. Private stock ponds: generally no Texas Parks and Wildlife treatment proposal is needed, unless the pond sits on a creek.
2. Public water: a TPWD treatment proposal and notice at least 14 days ahead.
3. TCEQ general permit: under 1 acre treated a year needs no permit; 1–100 acres needs on-site self-certification; over 100 acres needs filing with TCEQ.

Only products labeled for aquatic use go on water, and treatments are timed to avoid oxygen crashes that can kill fish.

Sandy hills, bayous and bottoms

Field condition	Tractor sprayer	Spray drone
Small pastures ringed by woods	Missed corners	Mapped edges
Wet bottoms along the Sabine	Ruts	No soil contact
Pond banks and shorelines	Hard to reach	Flies the shoreline
Hay close to cutting	Crushes the stand	No crop contact

Big Cypress Bayou drains the north toward Caddo Lake, and the Sabine River forms part of the southern line. Operators map water, homes and gardens as no-spray zones and check FieldWatch's DriftWatch and BeeCheck before every job.

A Harrison County spray year

Window	Typical drone work
Late April to May	Annual pasture weeds while small
May to June	Fertilizer, pond weeds as water warms
June to September	Stem maggot after each cutting
July to October	Fall armyworm in bermuda
August to October	Perennial weeds, brush and saplings

Airports near Marshall

Harrison County Airport sits about 3 miles southeast of Marshall, and controlled airspace around Longview and Shreveport reaches toward the county's western and eastern edges. Operators check airspace for every field and get FAA authorization where it's needed.

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 or Aquatic. Harrison County and its neighbors aren't on TDA's regulated-herbicide list. The FAA requires Part 107, Part 137 and a Section 44807 exemption for drones of 55 pounds or more.