Drone Spraying in Lewis County, WA for Hay, Christmas Trees and Berries

Drone spraying prices in Lewis County

Drone spraying in Lewis County, WA is billed per acre, per pass, application only. Washington drone rates run about $14–22 per acre, with $17 typical in 2026, and one operator serving the county lists from $15. Our rates:

Service	Typical rate	Notes
Hay and pasture weeds	from $15/acre	Broadleaves, thistles
Tansy ragwort and hemlock patches	from $16/acre	Before seed set
Grass seed fields	from $15/acre	Where labeled for aerial use
Christmas trees	from $18/acre	Steep, row-planted ground
Blueberries	from $18/acre	On the grower's program

Fields under 10 acres are billed as 10 acres, and neighbors can share a trip. Product is billed separately. Quotes reflect slopes, salmon streams nearby, field size and the spray volume on the label.

First in Washington for Christmas trees and poultry

Lewis County had 1,565 farms on 118,915 acres in the 2022 Census of Agriculture, averaging 76 acres, with sales up 45% to $197.6 million.

Crop or livestock	2022
Hay and haylage	27,756 acres
Christmas trees	6,627 acres
Field and grass seed	4,074 acres
Blueberries	1,529 acres
Broilers	3.69 million
Cattle	20,014 head

The county ranked first in Washington for Christmas tree sales at $21.1 million and for poultry and eggs at $74 million, and 11th for milk. More than half of farms run 10–49 acres and only 11 top 1,000, so drone spraying in Lewis County is mostly small hay fields, tree farms and berry plots. A local column notes the county raises about 71% of Washington's broilers, with roughly 9,500 irrigated acres and 30,200 acres of farm woodland, and a new grain growers' co-op now loads grain at the Port of Chehalis.

Tansy ragwort and county weed rules

The Lewis County Noxious Weed Control Board lists tansy ragwort and poison hemlock as B-Select weeds, with reed canarygrass, Canada and bull thistle, oxeye daisy and wild carrot among C-Select species. Tansy ragwort is poisonous to cattle and horses and flowers from July to September. After a written notice, landowners have 10 days to control listed weeds, or 48 hours if seed is about to drop, with fines up to $1,000 per parcel, per species, per day. A drone treats patches in pasture and hay before seed set.

Chehalis River floods

Floods on the Chehalis River in 2007 and 2009 closed a 20-mile stretch of I-5 at Chehalis, and five of the river's largest floods have come in the last 30 years. The state created the Office of Chehalis Basin in 2016 to lead the basin strategy. Lowland hay fields stay soft for weeks after high water, and a drone treats them without ruts.

Salmon streams and no-spray buffers

Parts of Washington carry mandatory no-spray buffers near salmon waters for certain pesticides, 60 feet for ground and 300 feet for aerial application, and EPA's Salmon Mapper lists the products and streams covered, which can change. Crews check the mapper and label bulletins before every job near the Chehalis, Newaukum, Skookumchuck and Cowlitz systems and choose products and buffers to match.

Cowlitz River dams and hatcheries

Mossyrock Dam, built in 1968 and Washington's tallest at 606 feet, forms the 23.5-mile Riffe Lake, and Mayfield Dam forms 13-mile Mayfield Lake downstream. Cowlitz hatcheries raise coho, Chinook, steelhead and cutthroat. Fields draining to the lakes and river get mapped buffers.

Forestland rules

Most aerial applications on forestland need a Washington DNR Forest Practices Application or Notification, valid for three years. Notices go up at least five days before spraying and stay 15 days after, buffers reach 325 feet on fish-bearing water in calm or unfavorable wind, and spray records must be kept seven years. Farm and Christmas tree jobs next to forestland follow the same care at the edges.

Egg capital and prairie valleys

Winlock's giant egg was first built in 1923 for an egg and poultry co-op, when local farms shipped up to 250,000 cases of eggs a year. The Boistfort prairie southwest of Chehalis was settled in 1851–52 and grew hops until 1912. Broiler houses and old prairie farms now share the valleys with hay fields; as early as 1940, Chehalis listed dairying, poultry and fruit as its main industries. The county covers 2,436 square miles and had 82,149 residents in 2020.

Field conditions

Field condition	Ground sprayer	Spray drone
Lowland hay after floods	Ruts, stuck rigs	No soil contact
Christmas trees on slopes	Rollover risk	Follows terrain
Fields beside salmon streams	Drift concerns	Mapped buffers
Small pastures between woods	Missed corners	Mapped edges

A Lewis County spray season

Window	Typical drone work
April to May	Pasture broadleaf weeds, grass seed passes
May to June	Christmas tree weed and pest work
June to July	Tansy ragwort and hemlock before flowering
Summer	Blueberry passes on the grower's program

Licensing and airspace

Drone applicators hold a Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) commercial applicator license, and the business holds an FAA Part 137 certificate with Part 107 pilots. Chehalis–Centralia Airport sits inside Chehalis city limits in the river lowlands, so crews check airspace for fields nearby.