What should a Texas hay or grazing lease include?

By Matt Schrader, Bale My Land. Last updated October 2026.

A hay or grazing lease is an agreement for a producer to cut hay or run livestock on your land, usually for rent or a share of what the land produces.

The appraisal district still decides whether that use qualifies for 1-d-1 open-space appraisal. This page is about the lease, not about a promise of a tax result.

What is a hay lease in Texas?

A hay lease lets a producer cut, bale, and take the hay from your grass, usually for cash rent or a share of the bales you both agree on. The appraisal district decides whether the hay operation meets its intensity standard.

Hay fits open grassland with a gate and a road wide enough for equipment. It does not need fence or livestock water. More on finding someone to do the work is in leasing land to a hay farmer.

What is a grazing lease in Texas?

A grazing lease lets a rancher run livestock on your land, usually for rent per acre or per head. It needs fence and water, or a rancher willing to provide them, and the stocking has to fit your appraisal district's grazing standard.

Grazing can work on rougher or brushier ground than a hay field. A side-by-side of the two is in hay lease versus grazing lease.

What lease structures do Texas landowners use?

The common structures are cash rent, a share of the hay or the calf crop, and sometimes no cash rent when the landowner's main goal is keeping the land in agricultural use. Which one fits is a negotiation between you and the producer.

• Cash rent. A set amount, often discussed per acre per year, paid on dates the lease names.
• Share. The producer does the work and you split bales, or calves, by a percentage you both agree to.
• Use without cash rent. Some owners accept no rent so the land stays in production. Spell out the work anyway, or the arrangement is only a handshake.

Bale My Land does not set rent and is not a party to the lease.

What drives the per-acre rate on a Texas pasture lease?

USDA NASS reported a 2025 statewide average cash rent for Texas pasture of $7.70 per acre per year. County averages in the same survey are far apart, and NASS withholds some counties, so a statewide average is a reference point, not a quote for your place.

The August 22, 2025 NASS cash rent release is the primary table. Texas A&M AgriLife summarized that release: Falls County pasture averaged $21 per acre, and McLennan and Fannin Counties averaged $19 per acre. Those are survey averages of cash rent, not hay-share deals, and not an offer for your tract. NASS does not publish a separate hay-land rent. Our county rent table repeats the published pasture and non-irrigated cropland figures for the counties we serve, and it marks counties NASS did not publish.

What moves a deal, without a dollar figure attached:

• Fence, water, and whether the rancher has to build or haul them.
• Grass, soil, and how the pasture has been managed.
• Gate width, road access, and how far the tract is from the producer's other ground.
• Tract size. A small place can be worth a trip only if it sits next to ground the producer already works.
• Who pays for fertilizer, weed control, and repairs.
• Whether payment is cash or a share of hay. A share has no single per-acre cash number.

What should a written hay or grazing lease include?

A written lease should name the parties and the land, set the term, say how and when anyone is paid, assign fertilizer and weed control, restrict herbicides you do not want used, require insurance, and say how either side can end it. Have a Texas attorney review the lease before you sign.

• Parties and land. Legal names, how to reach each other, the county, the acres, and which fields are in or out, ideally with a simple map.
• Use. Hay, grazing, or both, and the livestock species if animals are involved.
• Term. Start, end, and whether it renews.
• Payment. Cash, share, or no cash rent, the amount or percentage, and when it is due.
• Inputs. Fertilizer, seed, and weed control: who pays, who does the work, and which products are allowed.
• Herbicide limits. A clear ban where you need one, such as no Roundup near planted trees.
• Insurance. Who carries liability coverage, and whether you are an additional insured.
• Access. Gates, hours, and notice before entry.
• Termination. How either side ends it, how much notice, and what happens to stock, bales, and equipment.
• Records. Cutting dates, bale counts, or head counts you can show the appraisal district.

Who pays for fertilizer, seed, and weed control on a hay lease?

The lease should say who pays and who does the work. Districts treat managed hay as a real crop, so leaving inputs unassigned is how a pasture goes unmanaged and how a disagreement starts.

There is no statewide rule that the landowner or the producer must buy the fertilizer. Write down the choice you actually make. If the producer pays for inputs, the cash rent is often discussed differently than if you pay. That is a negotiation, not a published rate.

Should a lease restrict herbicides such as Roundup near planted trees?

Yes, if you do not want herbicide on trees, gardens, or other plantings. Put the ban in the lease, including a line that Roundup (glyphosate) and similar products stay away from planted trees unless you approve a spraying in writing.

Also require notice before any chemical application, and name the products that are allowed on the grass. A verbal instruction is easy to forget on a windy afternoon.

What insurance should a hay or grazing lease require?

The lease should say which party carries liability insurance for people, livestock, and equipment on the property, and whether the landowner is named as an additional insured. State law does not set a coverage amount for a private farm lease, so the amount is something you and the producer agree on with your insurance agents.

Ask to see a certificate before the first cutting or the first load of cattle. Say who is responsible if a person is hurt, an animal gets out, or equipment damages a gate or a tree.

How can either side end a hay or grazing lease?

The lease should say whether it ends on a date, renews, or can be ended early, and how much notice is required. It should also say what happens to livestock, bales, and equipment when it ends.

Include a drought plan for grazing: who decides to move stock, and who pays for extra feed or water. An open-ended handshake is hard to unwind when the grass fails or the producer stops coming.

How does a hay or grazing lease help with 1-d-1 ag valuation?

A lease can show the appraisal district that someone is putting the land to agricultural use, which is what 1-d-1 looks at. The lease does not grant the appraisal, and the district decides whether the use meets its standards and whether the land has the required history.

Read the Texas ag exemption guide for the five-of-seven-year history rule, Form 50-129, and the rollback tax if the use changes to something non-agricultural. Keep a copy of the signed lease with your other records.

Where can I download a Texas hay and grazing lease checklist?

Enter your email in the form on this page and the checklist downloads in your browser. It is a list of terms to cover, not a lease form, and an attorney should review any lease you sign.

We save the email with the same lead form the rest of the site uses, so we can send the checklist and occasional notes about matching landowners and producers. The privacy policy explains that.

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Sources: USDA NASS, Cash Rents by County, Texas, August 22, 2025; Texas A&M AgriLife, 2025 USDA NASS Cash Rent Rates Published; Texas Comptroller publication 96-300; Texas Tax Code Chapter 23; Texas Comptroller: agricultural appraisal. General information, not tax or legal advice.

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