Haskell County, TX — Ag Exemption Requirements (2026)
Haskell County sits in the Rolling Plains north of Abilene, where irrigated and dryland crops, cattle, and pasture remain central to the local agricultural economy. Haskell CAD’s 2024 intensity test is especially useful for its clear acreage floors: it distinguishes 10-acre cropland and native-pasture operations from five-acre improved pasture, including land inside city limits.
Animal Unit Equivalencies
An animal unit (AU) is a standardized measure used to compare livestock of different sizes. One AU = one 1,000-lb cow. Your total stocking rate is calculated in AUs, then multiplied by the acres-per-AU standard for your pasture type. These are statewide default values — confirm with your CAD.
| Animal | Animal Units | Source |
|---|---|---|
| cow | 1 | Statewide default |
| cow calf | 1 | Statewide default |
| horse | 1 | Statewide default |
| sheep | 0.2 | Statewide default |
| goat | 0.17 | Statewide default |
| deer | 0.2 | Statewide default |
| turkey | 0.018 | Statewide default |
| chicken | 0.01 | Statewide default |
Wildlife Management Option
Haskell County allows wildlife management as a qualifying use. Landowners must implement at least 3 of the seven recognized wildlife management practices defined by Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Land must have qualified as agricultural use when wildlife management began. Haskell CAD provides the state wildlife-management guidelines and first-year plan form; those guidelines require at least three of the seven wildlife-management practices. Haskell CAD also makes an annual-report form available, but the published county intensity test does not state that filing it is required.
Required Documents
- Form 50-129, Application for 1-d-1 (Open-Space) Agricultural Use Appraisal
- Wildlife management plan (PWD 885-W7000), if applying for wildlife management
Discretionary Caveats
"Grazing intensity standards not found in published document — confirm with CAD."
"Haskell CAD publishes the following pasture acreage minimums but no animal-unit stocking-rate table: Native Pasture – 10 acres; Improved Pasture – 5 acres."
"Beekeeping intensity standards not found in published document — confirm with CAD."
"As long as agriculture was the principal use in the preceding years, the land qualifies even if that use did not meet the degree of intensity requirement in all or some of those years."
Frequently Asked Questions — Haskell County
- Haskell CAD lists dry and irrigated cropland at 10 acres. A 10-acre crop tract meets the published acreage floor; the document does not state a smaller crop threshold.
- The published minimum is 10 acres for native pasture and 5 acres for improved pasture. These are acreage thresholds, not animal-unit stocking rates, so Haskell CAD’s document does not provide a number for calculating how many cattle or other livestock a pasture supports.
- Yes, the document says land inside city limits must have at least 5 acres in agricultural production. The tract must still meet the applicable use and intensity requirements; for example, 5 acres meets the improved-pasture minimum but not the 10-acre cropland or native-pasture minimum.
- It must have qualified for agricultural use when wildlife management began. Haskell CAD provides the state guidelines, which require at least 3 of 7 wildlife-management practices, along with a wildlife management plan for a first-year filing.
Haskell County Appraisal District
- Phone
- 940-864-3805
- jferguson@haskellcad.com
- Address
- P.O. Box 467 Haskell, TX 79521-0467
- Website
- https://www.haskellcad.org
Nearby Counties
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