Wildlife exemption?

[doghouse]

I am a rancher, and have been for most of my life. With that said I'm thinking about moving over to wildlife management exemption. Getting to old to mess with cattle anymore. Those of you that have done it, how hard is it to please the local county appraiser?

[Drycreek3189]

It will be different in different counties. I’m wildlife exempt and mine is a breeze, can’t speak for other counties.

[Hogmauler]

Mine is easy. It transferred with the purchase. It can’t be that hard to switch over. They send me a form every year that I have to fill out. On the form you explain your plan for the following year. Save all your receipts and turn em in. Your able to write off your expenses with Ag but not with Wildlife. All I got brother.
TP&W also have a private land biologist that will come out for free and make recommendations.

[bughunter]

what i’ve read is you can get a plan from TPWD and submit it to ur county before may 1st
that’s from williamson county

[Huntindad]

I'm fixing to do this in Burnet county. Seems pretty straight forward. But, like was said, it is county dependant. How many acres you talking about ?

[clay4626]

Just a thought if you have a neighbor that you trust let him run a few cows say feb through september
then no cows during hunting season for spraying keeping up fences and so on.

One question i would ask is how hard to go back to AG exp if someone down the road wanted to go
back to cattle

[kmitchl]

I am trying to get a plan to submit in Fayette county. Contacted the TPWD biologist for the county but have not heard back. Do they prepare the plan or do they provide a template/go by document? Currently ag exempt for cattle.

[matvxr]

. <---- my following dot.

[Draco]

The only win/win is leasing your place to another rancher for grazing. He's paying you money so you can save money on your taxes. Whether you have cows or you go with wild life, you are paying out money to save money.

[Huntindad]

Bob, I don't mind neighbors cows on my place, until I have things on my place. the dang calves like to chew on everything. I don't want to put a fence around my house to keep the cows out.

we can agree to disagree on that subject

[HogHunter34]

It will be different in different counties. I’m wildlife exempt and mine is a breeze, can’t speak for other counties.

Same here for the same county as DryCreek.
In my situation I had to move mine as the county changed the minimum acerage requirement for Ag/Timber exemption. The extra 10 acres I purchased behind my home had been in Ag/Timber many years and previous owner was grandfathered in when min. acerage changed to 20. When I purchased the acerage I basically had to play by the new rules so I moved it to Wildlife.

I completed the application filing for wildlife exemption and it was easy peasy. Had to submit the wildlife plan with it as well.

[HogHunter34]

I am trying to get a plan to submit in Fayette county. Contacted the TPWD biologist for the county but have not heard back. Do they prepare the plan or do they provide a template/go by document? Currently ag exempt for cattle.

I don't know if it's different requirements for different counties on the wildlife plan but you can access the form on TPWD and complete it yourself. There's a total of 7 concentrations like supplemental feed, supplemental water, habitat control, erosion control, predator control, census count,etc.
You only have to select 3 of the 7
Submit receipts of paid for feed, plot seed, etc..
Can submit pictures of wildlife
Census count can be live or harvested
You submit this with Annual Wildlife Report
We've done this on properties for two counties in East Tx and both counties were pretty easy to make this transition,

[doghouse]

I'm fixing to do this in Burnet county. Seems pretty straight forward. But, like was said, it is county dependant. How many acres you talking about ?

500 plus

[tdwinklr]

I am a rancher, and have been for most of my life. With that said I'm thinking about moving over to wildlife management exemption. Getting to old to mess with cattle anymore. Those of you that have done it, how hard is it to please the local county appraiser?

I think most or maybe all counties have a general stipulation that the land must be in Ag first before you can go to Wildlife.
As this has been talked about 100 times on here, you need to talk to your county Appraisal District with all your questions, as they are somewhat different from county to county. That's the BEST source of info.

[BTLowry]

One question i would ask is how hard to go back to AG exp if someone down the road wanted to go
back to cattle

From what I was told, pretty easy

Every county is different on the requirements but they are all pretty close on wildlife
I converted mine years ago
For the first few years they asked for stuff, then they quit asking for years. Last year a new guy took over and he wants survey filled out, evidence, etc.
I go talk to him every year to make sure what I am turning in is sufficient and if he would like any additional evidence for the coming year.
My advice is go spend 30min to an hour talking to the head of the 1D1 for your county.

When I went to wildlife I drew up a management plan, sent it to the biologist for my area (TPWD employee) who looked over it, made some suggestions for changes and then submitted it along with the other paperwork.
No brainer for me. There are 7 activities of which you need to perform a minimum of 3. Supplemental feeding of wildlife (deer feeders/minerals/food plots), shelters (wood duck boxes and bluebird houses) and preadtor control (feral hogs are considered predators)
So basically if you feed the deer, kill pigs and put up some bird houses you are off to a real good start