Ag Drone Services in Guadalupe County, TX for Pecans, Hay and Grain

Ag drone service rates in Guadalupe County

Ag drone services in Guadalupe County, TX are priced per acre, application only. Drone operators in and around the county start at $12–15 per acre, and pecan orchard work runs $18–35. Texas A&M AgriLife's 2026 custom rates for South Texas put aerial herbicide at $11.72, aerial insecticide or fungicide at $10.65 and aerial brush work at $13.43. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Corn and sorghum herbicide, fungicide or insecticide	from $11/acre	Sugarcane aphid, tassel fungicide
Hay insecticide	from $12/acre	Fall armyworm
Pasture and brush	from $13/acre	Mesquite, huisache, broadleaves
Pecan orchard	from $18/acre	Casebearer, scab
Fertilizer and seeding	from $12/acre	Pasture, cover crops

Each visit has a $250 minimum, and neighbors on the same road can share a trip. Product is billed separately.

The Pecan Capital of Texas

Seguin calls itself the Pecan Capital of Texas, with a 1,000-pound pecan statue at the courthouse and a 16-foot "World's Largest Pecan" near the Texas Pecan Museum. The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 3,036 acres of pecans in Guadalupe County.

Crop or livestock	2022
Hay and forage	21,344 acres
Corn	17,436 acres
Grain sorghum	7,292 acres
Wheat	3,281 acres
Pecans	3,036 acres
Cattle	44,026 head

Half of the county's 2,369 farms are 10–49 acres. Ag drone services in Guadalupe County cover pecan groves, hay meadows, pasture and the corn and sorghum fields on the blackland.

Pecan nut casebearer timing

AgriLife's casebearer program:

1. Traps: pheromone traps go out by April 1 in South Texas and April 15 in Central Texas.
2. Prediction: first moth catch usually comes about two weeks before the best spray date; first nut entry is expected at 1,831 heat units, counted from 10 days before 50% budbreak.
3. Threshold: treat when 2 or more of 310 clusters are infested, 1–2 days after egg hatch.
4. Generations: the first generation, laying eggs in late April and early May, does the most damage; a second follows about six weeks later.

Pyrethroids and carbaryl can trigger aphid and mite outbreaks, so product choice matters.

Pecan scab

AgriLife rates the Seguin area at moderate risk for pecan scab, which follows rain and humidity. Fungicide programs start before wet spells hit young nuts and leaves. Tall native trees need careful volume and coverage, so operators match drone passes to tree height and label rates. Young improved orchards and edge rows are the easiest fit, and drone passes can be timed between rains when orchard floors are too soft for rigs.

Hay and pasture weeds

Hay is the county's largest crop by acreage. Fall armyworm is treated at 3 or more larvae per square foot, scouting in the morning and spraying the same day. Smutgrass in bermuda and bahia is controlled with hexazinone at 2.75–4.5 pints per acre in late spring or early summer, with a 100-foot buffer from trees and a 38-day wait before cutting hay.

Mesquite and brush timing

AgriLife Brush Busters sprays mesquite once leaves are uniformly dark green and soil at 12–18 inches reaches 75°F, with a July 31 cutoff for East and South Texas. Huisache, prickly pear and Macartney rose are treated in their own windows, and drones spot-treat scattered plants from mapped coordinates.

Corn and sorghum

Corn on the blackland north of Seguin gets fungicide at tassel in wet years, a pass a ground rig can't make without damaging the crop. In grain sorghum, AgriLife's newer sugarcane aphid guidance treats at about 30% of plants with honeydew and colonies, earlier than older thresholds.

Suburbs, lakes and neighbors

Field condition	Ground sprayer	Spray drone
Blackland clay after rain	Bogs down	No soil contact
Pecan groves	Air-blast rig needed	Flies above the canopy
Small pastures near new homes	Drift complaints	Mapped buffers, coarse droplets
Corn at tassel	Crop damage	Flies above the canopy

Schertz and Cibolo have grown past 30,000 residents each, and homes now border farm fields across the north of the county. The Guadalupe River and its lakes run past Seguin. Operators map homes, schools, lakes and stock ponds as no-spray zones and check FieldWatch's DriftWatch and BeeCheck before every job.

Randolph and New Braunfels airspace

Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph sits inside Class D airspace from the surface to 3,300 feet when the tower is open, which covers fields near Schertz, Cibolo and Marion. New Braunfels National Airport has its own Class D, and Seguin Auxiliary Field is a Randolph training field. Operators get LAANC or base approval before flying near any of them.

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 Fruit, Nut and Vegetable. Guadalupe County and its neighbors are not 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.