Ag Drone Spraying in Tulsa County, Oklahoma

Ag drone spraying rates in Tulsa County

Ag drone spraying in Tulsa County, OK is billed per acre, one pass, application only. You buy the product through your co-op or farm store, and an ODAFF-licensed operator applies it at label rate.

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Hay & pasture weed control	from $11/acre	bermudagrass, fescue, native hay
Wheat & soybeans	from $11/acre	weeds, aphids, fungicide
Pecan orchards	from $16/acre	casebearer, scab; higher volume
Brush & eastern redcedar	from $20/acre	small cedar, sumac, saplings
Small acreage & horse properties	from $15/acre	5–40 acre tracts

Directory data for Tulsa County puts typical Oklahoma drone rates at $8–$16 per acre with a state typical near $12, and local operators list $10–$20 and $12–$15 per acre. Our starting rates sit just below that typical figure for field work. Price depends on acres, carrier volume, brush density, terrain, airspace coordination and obstacles such as homes, trees and power lines. Jobs under 10 acres are billed at a 10-acre minimum.

Hay, cattle and pecans in Tulsa County

Tulsa County is mostly city and suburbs, but it still has a lot of grass. The USDA 2022 Census counts 870 farms on about 96,800 acres, averaging 111 acres. Pasture covers about 40,500 acres and cropland about 34,600. Hay is by far the top crop at about 17,400 acres, followed by pecans at about 3,700 acres, wheat at about 2,600 and soybeans at about 1,300, with sod farms near Bixby. The county had about 12,200 cattle and 1,500 horses.

That makes most drone work here about grass, brush and pecans:

Target	Main drone jobs	Best timing
Bermudagrass hay	Broadleaf weeds, grassburs, armyworms	Spring–summer
Fescue pasture	Musk thistle, buttercup, poison hemlock	Early spring and fall
Pecans	Pecan nut casebearer, scab, weevil	May–September
Brush	Eastern redcedar, sumac, blackberry, saplings	Growing season
Sericea lespedeza	Invasive legume in pasture	Late summer, at bloom

Weed control in hay and pasture

Hay producers around Sperry, Skiatook, Collinsville, Leonard and south Bixby depend on clean bermudagrass and fescue. Weeds cut yield and lower hay value, and some, like poison hemlock, are toxic to livestock.

• Fall armyworms can strip bermudagrass in late summer, and fields need a quick pass when counts climb.
• Grassbur control starts with pre-emergence in late winter.
• Spot spraying thistle patches and brush lines keeps product off good grass.
• Grazing and haying intervals on each label are checked before every job.

Pecan orchards along the Arkansas River

Native and improved pecans grow along the Arkansas River bottoms and creeks. Pecan nut casebearer sprays in late May and early June, scab sprays in wet springs and weevil control in late summer are the main jobs. Mature pecans are tall, and many labels require higher volumes for full canopy coverage, so drones work best on young groves, native pecans with open canopies and edges. The operator checks label volume before quoting.

Eastern redcedar and brush on Tulsa County land

Eastern redcedar is one of the biggest land management problems in Oklahoma, spreading into pasture and raising wildfire risk. Herbicides work best on small trees, and drones can treat scattered young cedar across rough ground in the Osage Hills edge north and west of Tulsa. Larger trees usually need cutting or prescribed fire.

Airspace, neighbors and water

• Controlled airspace. Tulsa International Airport and Richard Lloyd Jones Jr. (Riverside) Airport put much of the county in controlled airspace. Operators get FAA authorization, often through LAANC, before each job.
• Neighbors. Many pastures border subdivisions around Owasso, Broken Arrow, Jenks and Glenpool. Low flight, coarse droplets and mapped buffers keep product on the property.
• Water. The Arkansas River, Bird Creek, the Caney River, Keystone Lake and many ponds sit close to farmland, and labels require buffers.

Small acreage and horse properties

Many Tulsa County landowners keep 5–40 acres of pasture or hay for horses, a few cattle or agricultural tax status. These tracts often sit between homes and woods, where a tractor with a boom is hard to use. A drone can treat them in one short visit, spot spraying weeds along fences and around barns, and the application record helps document that the land is actively managed.

Spray calendar for Tulsa County

Months	Typical jobs
February–March	Grassbur pre-emergence; poison hemlock and buttercup
April–May	Spring broadleaf weeds in hay; thistles; wheat weeds
May–June	Pecan casebearer; brush and redcedar; soybean weeds
July–September	Armyworms in bermudagrass; sericea lespedeza; pecan weevil
October–November	Fall thistle rosettes and winter weeds

Oklahoma licensing for drone spraying

The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (ODAFF) licenses pesticide applicators. A business spraying for hire by drone needs a commercial applicator license, and the operator must be certified in the aerial category plus the category for the work, such as agricultural plant or right-of-way pest control. ODAFF also requires proof of insurance for commercial applicators.

Federal rules require an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate, a Part 137 agricultural aircraft operator certificate and a Section 44807 exemption for drones over 55 pounds, plus airspace authorization in controlled airspace. If a label prohibits aerial application, the product cannot be applied by drone.

How booking works

1. Send the property location, crop or pasture, acres and target.
2. We match you with an ODAFF-licensed, FAA Part 137-certified operator working in Tulsa County.
3. The operator checks airspace, and you approve the per-acre quote and window.
4. The operator maps the property, applies and sends you the application record.

Communities we cover

Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Owasso, Bixby, Jenks, Sand Springs, Collinsville, Glenpool, Skiatook, Sperry and Leonard, plus farms along the Osage, Washington, Rogers, Wagoner, Okmulgee, Creek and Pawnee county lines.