Most rural land is used in some sort of agricultural production. The most is probably timber. For most of those land for most years they don't make much profit if any, but loads of expenses can be deducted against that farm income and 4 out of 5 years, those expenses can go against any other income and the allowed expenses are very liberal.

I suppose many hobby farms get the land classification of agricultural instead of recreational or homestead and are taxed lower.

Christmas tree farms are the best. You're growing a non-necessary crop that you can ignore harvesting for decades.

What about pecan farms? A new farm takes 20+ years to start producing and a lot of people would rather have Christmas trees than pecans.

I have heard of someone who has a regular job, but raises one or two head of livestock a year and sells them for slaughter. This way they get the ag tax benefits for income and their land.

There's a large plot of land along a highway outside Fort Worth that is definitely prime development land. The owner keeps a few cattle on the land, qualifying it for agricultural property taxes instead of the much-higher residential rates. Until the land is bid up high enough to make it worthwhile to sell, the ranching operation is enough to keep it inexpensive to hold onto and provide some deductions.