Hill County is Blackland farm and ranch country along I-35, with Lake Whitney and the Brazos on its west side. Hill CAD spells out its wildlife rules clearly, including a required annual report.
Last reviewed October 2026. Your appraisal district has the final say, so confirm the details with them.
We walk your Hill County property, look at what the deer and other wildlife are using and what they lack, and write a plan around that. The plan names the practices, where they go and when, and who does each job.
We prepare your plan and help you file it with Hill County Appraisal District. After that we can help with the yearly practices and prepare the annual report from your records.
Around Hillsboro, Itasca, Whitney and Covington, the county is mostly open Blackland Prairie farm and pasture. The west side drops toward the Brazos River and Lake Whitney, with rougher, more wooded country, and Aquilla Lake sits in the middle.
Open farm ground holds wildlife where there is cover. The west side has more of it naturally. Most plans here put back grass, brush and creek timber on the east side and manage brush on the west.
Native grass and shrub cover on open ground is habitat control.
On the western, wooded side, thinning cedar and brush opens browse.
Pond work or water sources on dry upland tracts.
A repeated count of deer, birds or other wildlife each year.
Every property is different. These are starting points, and the plan for your land comes from walking it.
Hill CAD's 2024 ag guidelines use wildlife plans suited to the Blackland Prairies region. If a tract has been made smaller than it was on January 1 of the prior year, the district applies the 92% wildlife use requirement for that region, which works out to about 12.5 acres.
The guidelines say a wildlife management plan on TPWD form PWD 885 must be submitted with the 1-d-1 application, and the chief appraiser will require an annual report every year.
For an ordinary ag valuation, Hill CAD's guidelines call for at least 5 acres in the operation and about one animal unit per 3 to 4 acres of improved pasture, or per 5 to 7 acres of native pasture.
District website: Hill County Appraisal District.
CHECK IT YOURSELF
LVG Wildlife Solutions prepares wildlife management plans and supporting records. We are not attorneys or tax advisors, and nothing on this page is legal or tax advice.
Plug in your acres and land value. The estimator uses Hill County's typical 2025 rural tax rate and the productivity value its appraisal district reports, then shows a rough yearly range and every figure it used.
Remember what it measures: the difference between full market-value taxes and an ag or wildlife valuation. If your land already has an ag valuation, a wildlife plan is how you keep that difference, not add to it.
See what goes into a wildlife management plan or ask us about your property.
Yes. Hill CAD's guidelines say the chief appraiser will require an annual report every year showing how the plan was carried out. We prepare it from your records and help you file it.
No minimum unless the tract was made smaller since January 1 of the prior year. Then Hill CAD applies the 92% Blackland Prairie requirement, about 12.5 acres.
TPWD form PWD 885, submitted with the 1-d-1 application (Form 50-129) to Hill County Appraisal District before May 1.
More questions and answers · How the Texas wildlife exemption works
Maps, practices, a year-by-year calendar, cost estimates, and the forms ready to file.
Read moreTHE FIRST STEPWe walk your Hill County property, find what it's short of, and tell you straight what would help most.
Read moreTHE PROCESSFrom the first call to the site visit, the plan, filing help and every year after.
Read moreSERVICESAssessments, plans, annual reports and habitat work, in the order your land needs them.
Read moreWHY USWhitetail and habitat specialists who walk every property and stay with you after the plan.
Read moreGET STARTEDTell us the county, the acreage and your goals. Plans are quoted to the property.
Get in touchTell us the acreage, how it's used now and what you want from it. We'll tell you plainly what would help most and what it would take.