what classifies as a farm?

Answer 1

For tax purposes in the Texas county in which I live you have to have at least 35 acres (sometimes even a bit less) for grazing. You can't , say, have a rabbitry on one acre and then get the exemption on the other 34 acres (even if some of the forage for the rabbits comes from those other acres). In other words, if you are claiming an agricultural exemption on your property, all of the land claimed for the exemption HAS to be in agriculture. For cropland and truck farming (in other words, row crops) the amount that can be claimed for the exemption can be less than the 35 acre minimum for cows. Also, I believe that to get the exemption, you have to show income from the land as a farm. You can't get the exemption just for living on the land and using it as a subsistance farm (it has to be market agriculture). I had 31 acres that I had to lease to a cattleman for grazing, so that I wouldn't get eaten alive by the land's so-called "true" market value.