Wow! You are so close to getting it!
I have an Ag Exemption and it covers chickens and I always classify the whole parcel under the PPIN. Here, I have 3 choices of classification; timber, crop, or pasture. I can break a parcel or PPIN down however I want but for simplicity's sake I always go with all pasture because it gives me the most versatility in the use of my land in that I can feed, breed, manage, raise, sale, or produce livestock, including beef cattle, sheep, swine, horses, ponies, mules, poultry, fur-bearing animals, honeybees, and fish to maintain my AE. All l do is go to the Revenue Dept at the County Courthouse, ask for an AE and they give me a short, fill in the blank type form that asks for Parcel # & PPIN, amount of acres in timber, pasture, and row crop and it becomes effective the next tax bill. It reduces my tax from $20 per acre to $1.15 per acre.
Yeah yeah, I know, I'm in AL and you're in FL so that's all irrelevant.
But, AL & FL are the same in that neither state wants to give hobby & micro farms the huge tax break because everybody with backyard chickens or a pet goat would abuse it by getting an AE and depleting the co/st treasury of it's revenue. So the co/st gov makes the little guy jump thru hoops to prove he is a bonafide small business.
Here too, if you try to reclassify less than 5 acres it sends up red flags because the Tax Dept think it's just somebody with a few backyard chickens, some wild pine trees, and a garden or absentee landowner abusing the system trying to get a tax break. Those applications for reclassification are subject to approval on inspection from The Man, after he comes snooping around pushing his little wheel on a stick and making notes, like he did to you.
Let me guess: It was the Property Appraiser's personal opinion, which is final word unless you file an appeal hearing, that you were not using the property to free range chickens because the chickens were in a coop on another property. If he'd seen a fenced pasture full of poop, feathers, coops, feeders, waterers and chickens you probably would have received the AE for that property. So he reclassified only the property that was being used for the chicken coop area and it's a small area and does little to lower your property tax bill.
My advice to you is you're too close to give up. You started the battle so you need to see it through to the end. Getting your small AE was a victory in itself. Your co/st gov wants you to concede defeat and continue feeding them the tax revenue from your hard earned $$ that they've become accustomed to and take for granted. Get your other property in order by making it look more like a poultry business pushing more chicken than Col Sanders and give it another shot. You have 30 days.
If that doesn't work, check on a Homestead exemption to reduce your tax bill.
Good luck! Please keep us posted.
