AG Exemption and 100 Year Flood Plain Greenville

[die Eichkatze]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Imagine that you're a small farmer raising, say, herbs for sale to the public at farmer's markets. Now, imagine how big a crop of herbs you could grow on five acres. Or chickens. Or rabbits (yes, people eat rabbits). Or, for that matter, vegetables. It's amazing how much, done right, you can grow on a small acreage.

Now, a lot of those smaller tracts got their ag exemption when they were part of a larger one, and kept it because someone did what they're supposed to do in order to keep them in ag production. It's almost impossible to get an ag exemption for a smaller tract, but you can keep it if you do the right things.

If 50% of their income is coming from their land, then they qualify for ag exemption anyway...but a vast majority of ag exemptions are "open space" exemptions.
I completely understand and agree with you that you can make 5 acres very productive, but I would venture to bet a vast majority of these "ranchettes" aren't setup that way. Slapping a few head of cattle on a 5, 10, 15 acre place to me isn't all that productive or beneficial whether it was part of a larger tract at one point or not.
My family personally benefits from this exemption, so I'm not knocking it. There is no way in H E double L that we could afford to pay the standard tax rate on our hundreds of acres in Gillespie County, but I just think the the minimum standards need to be "beefed-up".

[TexasHorseLady]

Open space (wildlife) is a special deal and I believe the lowest acreage that qualifies is in the 11 acre range.

[die Eichkatze]

Open space and wildlife are two different things. What most people say is ag exemption is technically open space...they aren't ag, but their land is ag...http://recenter.tamu.edu/pdf/1361.pdf
Wildlife is different from open space, and that 11 acre minimum does sound right...although that also varies from region to region...ugh!

It would be nice if the appraisal districts would post their guidelines, or be required to submit them to the comptroller and have them post them for every county and anyone to see.

[TexasHorseLady]

Well, regular ag and wildlife are both 1.d.1, but I've always heard wildlife referred to as "open space" separate from regular ag. We have the former, though we're contemplating getting our wildlife ag as we're on 55 acres with a creek through it on a major migration route and since everything from red winged blackbirds to pelicans to, rarely, whooping cranes, and everything in between, stop off on their migrations, we might as well make it even more welcoming and make it official.

[die Eichkatze]

Not a bad idea especially if you ever decide to sell your land, as I'm pretty sure wildlife exemption would be more valuable than ag....better selling point since most people are buying land for recreation, and are not interested in having livestock or planting fields. Plus you can still do all your ag stuff while under wildlife anyway, and switch back to ag if you find the wildlife exemption burdensome.

[TX75007]

Originally Posted by die Eichkatze

If 50% of their income is coming from their land, then they qualify for ag exemption anyway...but a vast majority of ag exemptions are "open space" exemptions.
I completely understand and agree with you that you can make 5 acres very productive, b.

Riight. Five acres will not grow much cash producing crops nor will it cover the overhead to even run such a farm. But this is not even important.

There is no requirement to make "50%" income at all. The law is specific on land valuation for tax purposes. Is it in crops, is it used for wildlife, or is it under a conservation easement?

http://recenter.tamu.edu/pdf/1361.pdf

If you have ten acres and have it leased out for hay, then you are done. Most counties and cities have detailed guidelines that they use.

[die Eichkatze]

Originally Posted by TX75007

There is no requirement to make "50%" income at all. The law is specific on land valuation for tax purposes. Is it in crops, is it used for wildlife, or is it under a conservation easement?

http://recenter.tamu.edu/pdf/1361.pdf

I'm not talking about open space or wildlife, I'm talking about a true agriculture exemption. If you are wanting a true agricultural exemption (1-d not 1-d-1) then your primary occupation and source of income have to come from agriculture...riight there on the first page middle row of the article. I guess if you had 3+ jobs then it could be less than 50%.

What overhead are you going to have on a 5 acre farm? $250,000 Combine? If you're trying to make it work on five acres, chances are it will be all manual labor. Your not going to get rich, but if done correctly with the right product, it would be possible to have a primary income derived from it.