Keep My Acres
Yes, they count as agricultural use
Texas Tax Code §23.51(2) defines agricultural use to include cultivating the soil and producing crops for human food, animal feed, or planting seed, and it specifically names floriculture, viticulture and horticulture. Christmas trees and pumpkins are both grown crops, so neither is an exotic case. Two of the six districts we cover list Christmas tree farms by name with their own standards, and all six have a standard for small vegetable or row-crop operations.
What matters is the same thing that matters for hay or cattle: the land has to be devoted principally to that production, at the degree of intensity normal for the area, and it has to have been in qualifying ag or timber use for five of the last seven years. Planting your first fifty seedlings this spring does not qualify land that was not already in ag use.
Christmas trees: what the districts publish
A Christmas tree farm is a long operation. You are planting, shearing and replanting on a multi-year cycle, and the district expects to see that cycle, not just trees standing in a field.
Approximately 5 acres minimum, 400 trees per acre, yearly trimming required, plus a written production plan, a fertilization and weed-control program, and a water supply or irrigation system.
Approximately 3 acres minimum, trees kept trimmed annually. The sheet gives typical grids: 5x5 spacing = about 1,742 trees per acre, 6x6 = about 1,210 trees per acre.
No acreage number published. Smaller tracts are reviewed case by case. Trees must be kept trimmed yearly, and the district may ask for receipts for tree sales, fertilizer, and other business costs.
Their published guidelines do not list a Christmas tree standard. Ask the district which standard it applies before you plant or file.
Walker and San Jacinto differ by a factor of four on trees per acre, which tells you how much this is a local judgment call. Plant to the standard of the county your land is in, not to the one you read about somewhere else.
Pumpkins: usually judged as a truck farm or row crop
None of the six districts publishes a line item that says "pumpkin patch." Pumpkins get judged under the small-vegetable-farm or dry-crop standard, which every district does publish.
Truck farms: approximately 3 acres. Small operations may qualify if managed intensively. Requires proof produce was sold wholesale or to the public, plus a written production plan, fertilization and weed control, water supply or irrigation, and a pest management plan.
Truck farms: approximately 3 acres. Small operations may qualify if managed intensively and you can prove the produce was sold to the public.
Truck farms are described as small vegetable farms, usually 5 acres or less and typically 3 acres, normally with more than one crop. Non-irrigated "dry crops" such as peas, corn, watermelons and strawberries are usually on 5 acres or more, but smaller tracts are possible.
Truck farming (dry crops): 5 acres. Horticulture operations: 5 acres, greenhouse and outdoor production.
No acreage number published. Smaller tracts case by case, with proof the produce is sold wholesale to the public.
The published ag guidelines cover pasture and hay. There is no truck-farm line item, so ask the district what it expects for a vegetable or pumpkin crop.
Notice the common thread: sales proof. A patch grown for your family and a few neighbors is a garden. Districts exclude home vegetable gardens, and Walker says so in writing. Keep the receipts that show you sold a crop.
The part of a pumpkin patch that is not farming
This is where people get surprised. Admission gates, hayride routes, corn mazes, parking fields, concession stands, event barns and photo setups are agritourism. They are a retail and entertainment business operating on your land, not the cultivation of a crop.
Expect the acreage to be split. The acres in actual pumpkin production are what you are asking to be appraised on productivity value. The parking lot, the maze, the midway and the buildings can be treated as a separate, non-qualifying use, and changing an acre from crop to parking is the kind of change that can trigger rollback tax on those acres.
None of our six districts publishes a written policy on how it splits a seasonal-attraction tract. That is a judgment call made by your chief appraiser, and it is small enough that it is not worth guessing at. Call the district and ask before you build the attraction side. The same goes for a choose-and-cut Christmas tree farm with a gift shop and a wagon ride.
What to ask your appraisal district
Five short questions. One phone call. Write down who you spoke to and the date.
- What acreage and plant count do you expect for a Christmas tree farm here? (Ask in Polk, Tyler, Angelina and Trinity, where no number is published.)
- Do you judge a pumpkin crop under your truck farm standard, your dry crop standard, or something else?
- If the operation is open to the public, how do you treat the parking, maze, concession and event acreage?
- Do you want a written production plan filed with the application?
- What sales proof satisfies you: receipts, invoices, a sales tax permit, or a market record?
Records to keep from day one
- A planting map with acreage, spacing and plant or tree counts.
- Receipts for seedlings, seed, fertilizer, herbicide, irrigation and equipment.
- Sales records: invoices, receipts, market or roadside sales, and any sales tax filings.
- A dated activity log: planting, shearing or trimming, mowing, spraying, harvest.
- Dated photos each season, including the stand of trees or the crop in the field.
- Your written production plan, and any lease if someone else farms it.
Our records guide covers what you do and do not have to hand over if the district checks.
How to file
You file the same Form 50-129 application for 1-d-1 open-space valuation that a cattle or hay operation files, and the deadline is April 30. Describe the crop, the acreage actually in production, and the intensity numbers the district publishes. If part of the tract is pasture, timber or wildlife, those acres are described separately.
Plan the year ahead, not the year behind. If you are converting pasture to trees or pumpkins, keep the existing qualifying use going until the new crop is actually in production. Breaking the five-of-seven history is far more expensive than waiting one season.
Your county
Each district has its own address, standards and local expectations:
General information, not legal or tax advice. Your appraisal district makes the final call.