Ag Drone Services in King County, WA for Pasture, Hay and Weed Control

Ag drone service prices in King County

Ag drone services in King County, WA are billed per acre, per pass, application only. Washington drone spraying runs about $14–22 per acre in 2026, with a $17 average, and one operator serving the county starts at $15. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Pasture and hay herbicide	from $16/acre	Broadleaf weeds
Cover crop and pasture seeding	from $16/acre	Seed billed separately
Noxious weed spot treatment	from $18/acre	Mapped patches
Nursery and specialty crops	from $20/acre	Where labeled for aerial use

Each visit has a $250 minimum, and neighbors can share a trip. Product is billed separately. Quotes reflect field size, streams nearby, airspace approval and the spray volume on the label.

Small farms, nurseries, dairies and horses

King County had 1,604 farms on 46,261 acres in the 2022 Census of Agriculture. The average farm is just 29 acres, and 90% are under 50 acres.

Product or crop	2022
Nursery, greenhouse and sod	$44.8 million (4th in Washington)
Milk	$31.0 million
Vegetables	$8.3 million
Hay and forage	9,022 acres
Corn for silage	1,223 acres
Horses	4,573 head (6th in Washington)

Ag drone services in King County are mostly pasture, hay, silage and weed work on small, scattered fields.

Agricultural Production Districts

In 1979, King County voters approved a $50 million bond for the first farmland preservation program of its kind in the country, and in 1985 the county created five Agricultural Production Districts covering about 41,000 acres: the Enumclaw Plateau (over 20,000 acres), Snoqualmie (about 14,500), Upper Green (3,500), Lower Green (about 1,400) and Sammamish (about 1,080, a third of it sod).

Snoqualmie Valley floodway

About 75% of the Snoqualmie district lies in the floodway, and all 37 of the county's farm pads, raised ground for animals and equipment, are there. A June 2022 atmospheric river flooded the valley and pushed planting back by weeks. A drone never touches soft valley ground, so passes can go on as soon as leaves are dry.

Enumclaw Plateau dairies and horses

Enumclaw has 16 Grade A dairies, the most in the King and Pierce region, and the plateau's farmland is about 40% livestock and forage and about 18% horse operations, on soils from the ancient Osceola Mudflow. Silage corn, hay and pasture there are the core of drone work in the county.

The Green River valley

Kent was known as the "Lettuce Capital of the World" in the 1920s, and Howard Hanson Dam, finished in 1962, ended the valley's yearly floods. Today the Lower Green district is about 58% market crops and 75% preserved farmland, surrounded by warehouses and homes. In the Snoqualmie Valley, farms like Remlinger Farms in Carnation run about 350 acres of crops and pick-your-own fields. Mixed vegetable and berry plots next to pasture mean every boundary is mapped before a herbicide pass.

Noxious weeds

The county's 2026 list requires control of tansy ragwort, wild chervil and purple loosestrife, and of Class A weeds such as garlic mustard and giant hogweed. Poison hemlock must be controlled on public land, rights-of-way and high-priority private land, knotweeds along the Green and Cedar rivers, and reed canarygrass control is recommended. Tansy ragwort and poison hemlock are toxic to horses and cattle, so pasture work targets them first.

Drones on wet ground in Washington

In 2023, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife used a drone to map and spray invasive cattail and reed canarygrass on 2,765 acres of the Skagit Wildlife Area, ground that equipment couldn't reach. The same approach suits wet pasture edges and weed patches in King County's valleys.

Salmon streams and buffers

The Snoqualmie, Green and Cedar rivers and their tributaries carry salmon. Federal court orders have required no-spray buffers for certain pesticides near salmon-supporting waters, with wider distances for aerial application. Operators follow each label and current federal salmon restrictions, map streams, ditches and wetlands as no-spray zones, and use only products labeled for use near water.

Registries and neighbors

Washington joined FieldWatch in 2024, so operators check DriftWatch and BeeCheck before every job. With more than 2.2 million residents in the county, farms here sit close to homes, so houses, gardens and wells are mapped as no-spray zones.

Seattle airspace

Sea-Tac and Boeing Field sit under Class B airspace that covers much of western King County, and smaller fields such as Fall City and Enumclaw airports serve the valleys. Operators check every field and get FAA authorization where needed.

A King County spray season

Window	Typical drone work
April to May	Tansy ragwort and poison hemlock rosettes
May to June	Pasture broadleaf weeds after floods recede
June to August	Knotweed and noxious weed spot treatment
September to October	Pasture renovation and cover crop seeding

Washington licensing

The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) requires every drone applicator and piece of application equipment in the state to be licensed. Operators also hold FAA Part 107 and Part 137, fly with a spotter and coordinate with nearby airstrips; drones of 55 pounds or more need a Section 44807 exemption.