Will Farm & Ranch Insurance Cover Grain Ruined in a Silo?

Farms come in all shapes and sizes, which means no single farm and ranch insurance policy can give you all the protection you need to feel like your business, family, and workers are adequately covered.

Getting farm insurance is like bundling customized home and business policies to give yourself more coverage than you could get with one or the other. You can work closely with your agent to craft the policy that meets your farm’s needs.

One question that frequently arises during the process is whether farm and ranch insurance will cover grain ruined in a silo. The short answer is yes, in many cases. However, when it comes to farm insurance, it’s best to be specific.

Check your policy and your coverages, and make sure you talk to your agent about what coverages your policy provides for your silo and grain, which may vary depending on how the grain becomes ruined.

Learn more about farm insurance and how it covers grain ruined inside a silo.

Assessing Your Coverage

If you’re a farmer, you already know that your farm insurance policy includes coverage for just about everything on your property — your home, family, workers and visitors, necessary structures (such as barns, silos, and chicken coops), farm machinery and equipment, livestock, and products.

While these are considered standard coverages, it’s good to know exactly what’s included in your policy and make sure you’re covered for an amount that can help you keep your farm operating if you suffer a loss.

Understanding Key Differences

Few people make a distinction between a silo and a grain bin. More often than not, grain is dry-stored in a bin, a steel structure with moisture and temperature-control properties. By contrast, a silo is typically made from concrete, brick, metal, or wood and is designed to ferment what’s placed inside.

While it’s intended to ferment, silage can still go bad, making it unusable for livestock.

Finding Coverage for Your Grain

It may seem like a trivial matter when you take stock of all the other things you have going on, but the importance of thoroughly understanding the provisions of your farm insurance policy can’t be overstated.

Generally speaking, your silo and the grain in it will likely be insured against damage, but in different parts of the policy and for different reasons.

Your silo is protected along with other buildings and structures on your farm (not including your home) under what’s typically known as “farm structure coverage” or “farm outbuilding coverage.” You can get separate farm product coverage to replace materials and items you use on the farm, such as grain, feed, seed, and silage.

Farm structure coverage may insure against such perils as explosions, fire, hail, lightning, and windstorms, while farm product coverage can insure against grain spoilage and similar issues. It’s a good idea to have both types of coverage to protect your operations from as many disruptive issues as possible.

Consequently, the way in which the grain became ruined will influence the type of claim you file with your insurer.

Enhance Your Farm and Ranch Insurance With These Popular Options

What do you do if your computer system breaks down or you have a large section of electrical fence to repair? Issues like these can disrupt your farming operations.

If you added options for farm equipment breakdown and fencing coverage to your farm and ranch insurance policy, you could get help replacing your computer and fixing your fence. These are just two of more than half a dozen coverage options you can add to your policy to enhance your farm insurance and protect your livelihood.

By necessity, you can customize the farm and ranch insurance you purchase to fit the unique needs of your farming operation. Beyond basic protection for your home, buildings and structures, and farm products, several popular options are available to add coverage to your farm insurance.

7 Popular Options to Enhance Your Farm Insurance

You can add several options to your farm insurance to help guard your business against disruption. Here are a few popular options.

1. Farm Equipment Breakdown

Adding farm equipment breakdown coverage to your policy covers the physical loss of equipment used on your farm, including computers, generators, air conditioners, and boilers. That coverage can help you pay to get the equipment running again.

2. Farm Income Protection Coverage

While farm income protection coverage only guards against insured perils, this add-on to your policy could reimburse you for lost earnings and other expenses if your covered farm property causes you to lose money.

3. Fencing Coverage

Farm insurance doesn’t cover fencing. However, large farms, ranches, and farms in turbulent weather zones or with electrical fencing may find it beneficial to invest in fencing coverage.

4. Livestock Coverage

Basic farm insurance tends to cover livestock for injuries but not illness. With additional livestock coverage, your animals will be covered from death resulting from illness. Moreover, you can be reimbursed for loss of income and insured against legal costs and damages if your livestock injures someone.

5. Commercial Auto Insurance

Your auto insurance won’t cover the farm vehicles driven by your workers. Adding the commercial auto insurance option to your farm and ranch insurance helps you look after your trucks, tractors, and other vehicles.  

6. Equine Coverage

Horses have needs that differ vastly from other livestock. Equine insurance is specific to horses, providing you with coverage for death or theft, loss of use, and major medical or surgical needs.

7. Crop Coverage

Despite covering a wide range of risks, farm insurance doesn’t protect crops grown for profit. This option can help protect your operations against a loss of crops or revenue due to natural disasters, fluctuations in product prices, and other unforeseen circumstances.

These seven popular options can enhance your farm and ranch insurance coverage, giving you bonus protection against losses that might hurt your business.

Explore Your Options

Because farm insurance can be tailored to your farm’s unique characteristics, many optional forms of coverage are available that could help protect your farm and your family. Ask your agent about these and other coverage options that might be available to you.

Top 6 Ways to Customize Your Farm & Ranch Insurance Policy

Whether you tinker around a converted greenhouse out back or farm 5,000 acres to earn a living, you need farm and ranch insurance. However, finding a farm insurance policy that covers everything you need isn’t always simple.

An insurance policy does one thing: It protects you and your family against unexpected losses. But on a farm or ranch, those losses can come in many varieties, and there are just as many ways to build your policy.

Farmers and ranchers face distinct challenges and risks. No two farms are the same, so it’s important to work closely with a farm insurance agent to start with a basic policy and then customize it to meet your needs.

Here are the top six ways to customize your farm and ranch insurance policy.

1. Home and Personal Property

The first big item in your farm insurance policy will cover your home and its contents. It also will insure the grass and property within a certain distance of your farmhouse and provide liability coverage for any house guests.

2. Farm Buildings and Equipment and Machinery

Along with your home, you will have to account for all of the buildings (barns, garages, silos, etc.) on your property. You’ll also list equipment and machinery, such as trucks, tractors, and balers, used on your farm or stored in your buildings. 

Farm insurance covers farm buildings and their contents separately. Farming equipment is expensive, and insurance can prove useful when you need an unexpected repair or replacement.

3. Livestock Sold or Used on Your Farm

For many farmers, an important part of their business involves livestock raised to be sold, cows and sheep that need to be herded, or horses ridden to round up other livestock. 

You can customize your livestock coverage to the specific needs of your farming operation, including equine insurance that addresses horses’ particular needs.

4. Liability Insurance

Another item on your list for farm and ranch insurance should be liability coverage. Even the most seasoned farmworkers can suffer accidents and injuries around vehicles, machinery, and livestock. Liability coverage can help keep your farm safe from financial setbacks if a worker, customer, or visitor is hurt on your farm or ranch.

5. Umbrella Liability Insurance

One potential customization to your farm and ranch insurance is liability coverage beyond the limits of your auto and home insurance. Typically, umbrella liability coverage options range from $1 million to $5 million, but larger coverage limits are available up to $10 million.

6. Crop Coverage

If you grow spices, herbs, vegetables, or fruits to sell, consider purchasing crop coverage. Basic farm insurance policies don’t cover the produce you grow to sell for income. However, this coverage can be purchased separately.

An Agent Can Help Set Your Priorities for Coverage

These are the top six ways to customize farm and ranch insurance, but you might consider even more, depending on your farm operation. A site visit from your farm and ranch insurance agent can help you decide what type of coverage will meet your needs.

Top 6 Reasons Farm & Ranch Insurance Is Better Than Home Insurance

You know that home insurance protects your home and everything in it. But if you have a farm or a ranch, there’s more than just a home to protect — you want coverage for your livestock, outbuildings, fencing, equipment, and more. Farm insurance covers your home and everything else, too. Here are six reasons farm and ranch insurance is better than home insurance.

1. Offers Expanded Liability Coverage

A home insurance policy offers personal liability coverage. This means that if someone is injured on your property, your insurance policy can pay for their medical bills, any legal costs associated with the event, etc. Insurance for your ranch or farm also covers personal liability, but it can also include a large range of different kinds of liability coverage:

• Equine liability coverage

• Farm liability coverage

• Chemical drift liability coverage

• Farm product liability coverage

However, farm insurance policies are highly customizable. If you’re choosing a policy, make sure it includes the different kinds of liability insurance you may need.

2. Safeguards Your Income

If you farm full-time, your income is tied directly to your crops and livestock. You may suffer unexpected financial hardship if you lose crops or livestock due to disease or theft.

A quality farm insurance policy can grant you the peace of mind of knowing that your income is protected. If your crops and livestock are insured as part of your policy, the insurance company will be able to compensate you.

3. Protects Valuable Equipment and Machinery

It’s important to make sure you have thorough coverage for your crops and livestock. But your equipment and machinery are just as important to a successful farming operation. 

If you have coverage for tractors, irrigation systems, and other key pieces of equipment, you can promptly repair or replace them. Even if you have a small hobby farm, home insurance won’t cover farming equipment.

4. Covers Most Types of Outbuildings

A home insurance policy can sometimes cover select outbuildings (like a small storage shed). However, it won’t cover barns and other buildings that are part of your farm’s daily operations.

As you may already know, the cost of repairing a damaged barn can be comparable to the cost of a home repair. The right farm insurance might save you a significant amount of money.

5. Allows for Very Specific Coverage

An insurance policy is customizable to an extent. But because there’s so much variation from one farming operation to another, farm insurance tends to be more customizable than home insurance.

6. Protects Your Home in the Same Way Home Insurance Does

If you aren’t too familiar with the world of insurance, it might seem like you need both home and farm insurance. However, farm and ranch insurance is essentially an expansion of a home insurance policy, so it protects both your home and your business.

Farm and Ranch Insurance: A Sure Way to Protect Your Investment

There’s always uncertainty in the business of farming. But when you choose the right farm insurance policy, you can safeguard yourself and your family and find peace of mind.

Top 6 Reasons Farm & Ranch Insurance Is Better Than Home Insurance

You know that home insurance protects your home and everything in it. But if you have a farm or a ranch, there’s more than just a home to protect — you want coverage for your livestock, outbuildings, fencing, equipment, and more. Farm insurance covers your home and everything else, too. Here are six reasons farm and ranch insurance is better than home insurance.

1. Offers Expanded Liability Coverage

A home insurance policy offers personal liability coverage. This means that if someone is injured on your property, your insurance policy can pay for their medical bills, any legal costs associated with the event, etc. Insurance for your ranch or farm also covers personal liability, but it can also include a large range of different kinds of liability coverage:

• Equine liability coverage

• Farm liability coverage

• Chemical drift liability coverage

• Farm product liability coverage

However, farm insurance policies are highly customizable. If you’re choosing a policy, make sure it includes the different kinds of liability insurance you may need.

2. Safeguards Your Income

If you farm full-time, your income is tied directly to your crops and livestock. You may suffer unexpected financial hardship if you lose crops or livestock due to disease or theft.

A quality farm insurance policy can grant you the peace of mind of knowing that your income is protected. If your crops and livestock are insured as part of your policy, the insurance company will be able to compensate you.

3. Protects Valuable Equipment and Machinery

It’s important to make sure you have thorough coverage for your crops and livestock. But your equipment and machinery are just as important to a successful farming operation. 

If you have coverage for tractors, irrigation systems, and other key pieces of equipment, you can promptly repair or replace them. Even if you have a small hobby farm, home insurance won’t cover farming equipment.

4. Covers Most Types of Outbuildings

A home insurance policy can sometimes cover select outbuildings (like a small storage shed). However, it won’t cover barns and other buildings that are part of your farm’s daily operations.

As you may already know, the cost of repairing a damaged barn can be comparable to the cost of a home repair. The right farm insurance might save you a significant amount of money.

5. Allows for Very Specific Coverage

An insurance policy is customizable to an extent. But because there’s so much variation from one farming operation to another, farm insurance tends to be more customizable than home insurance.

6. Protects Your Home in the Same Way Home Insurance Does

If you aren’t too familiar with the world of insurance, it might seem like you need both home and farm insurance. However, farm and ranch insurance is essentially an expansion of a home insurance policy, so it protects both your home and your business.

Farm and Ranch Insurance: A Sure Way to Protect Your Investment

There’s always uncertainty in the business of farming. But when you choose the right farm insurance policy, you can safeguard yourself and your family and find peace of mind.

What Is an Act of God in a Farm & Ranch Insurance Policy?

Farms and ranches stand more to lose from “acts of God” than any other business. Unforeseen weather disasters cause immediate damage to the products farms and ranches make. While other businesses can protect their inventory from these events, that’s not as easy with acres of crops or herds of livestock.

While every underwriter has different coverage standards, there are common understandings of what events qualify as acts of God. How do they relate to the fields of farm and ranch insurance?

What Is an Act of God?

Legally, an act of God is defined as an unpredictable natural event for which no human being could be held responsible. “Unpredictable” is the keyword in this definition. It separates acts of God from disasters that can be anticipated and managed.

Acts of God can take many forms in the context of farms and ranches. Periods of heavy rainfall or high winds can devastate crop fields. Tornadoes can upend barns, equipment, and other farm structures. Over the last few years, we’ve seen how extended droughts have crippled entire agricultural industries in the Western United States.

Farm and ranch insurance companies that account for acts of God do so in several ways. Many of them include or exclude specific acts of God in their policies. Premiums and deductibles to cover unexpected disasters may be different from other coverages (usually higher).

Because of their nature, assessing the risk of acts of God on farms and ranches can be quite complex. They don’t just suffer property losses — they also experience income and inventory losses.

Are Earthquakes and Floods Acts of God?

Many insurers exclude earthquakes and floods from the list of “acts of God.” True, you can’t blame any specific person for earthquakes or floods. However, they are, in the slightest of ways, “predictable.”

It comes down to geography. Certain parts of the world experience earthquakes more frequently than others. Other areas are mapped as floodplains that are much more susceptible to heavy rains.

Some farm and ranch insurance companies do include earthquakes and floods as acts of God. For the most part, however, those who run agribusinesses and want additional earthquake and flood insurance policies must purchase them on top of standard liability coverage.

How Are Acts of God Covered?

A typical farm insurance policy covers equipment, buildings, structures, feed, livestock, irrigation systems, and vehicles for their insured repair or replacement value. This usually includes acts of God like tornadoes, lightning strikes, winds, thunderstorms, tornadoes, pest infestation, wildfires, and drought.

Insurance policies typically distinguish crops from other farm and ranch assets. Most agribusinesses take out “multiple peril crop insurance” (MPCI) for events resulting in low harvest yields. The federal government regulates the purchase of MPCI policies, and farmers must buy them before growing season deadlines. 

Hail storms are typically covered in separate “crop-hail” policies. That’s because hail could decimate a particular area of a rancher’s farmland but leave others intact.

What Does Your Insurance Cover?

Insurance companies have different policies and limits on losses caused by acts of God. Farmers must examine their insurance documents carefully to see what’s covered and speak to their agents to make adjustments.

Sources:

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/act_of_god

https://www.iii.org/article/understanding-crop-insurance

5 Excellent Reasons to Have Farm Insurance

You have spent countless hours and poured thousands of dollars setting up your farm, but you might still question whether you are doing enough to protect it against life’s unexpected surprises. From natural disasters to animal illnesses, farm insurance can help you protect your investment. 

You should consider obtaining a farm insurance policy if any of the following descriptors apply to you:

1. You Want to Protect Your Feed and Livestock

Farm insurance policies can be customized to cover a wide range of livestock, such as:

• Pigs

• Goats

• Emu

• Chickens

• Horses

• Cattle

You can obtain individual coverage on high-value animals (such as show horses), take out a blanket policy on your entire farm, or insure a specific herd. Naturally, the type and level of coverage you select will have a direct impact on premium costs, so you can scale back or ramp up your level of coverage to ensure that the policy fits your needs and your budget. 

2. You Want to Protect Your Investment 

Farm insurance doesn’t just cover your livestock: It can also ensure structures like barns or equipment such as tractors. In other words, you can take out a policy on just about any piece of equipment or asset related to your day-to-day farm work. 

3. You Are a Full-Time Farmer

As is the case with any full-time job, you and your loved ones depend on the revenue you gain from your farm work, but despite your best efforts, plenty of things — natural disasters, inclement weather, or even just a simple run of bad luck — can put that source of income in jeopardy.

Farm insurance can help you make your farm more resilient to the whims of Mother Nature. You can cover equipment damage, livestock losses, and more, and depending on your provider, you may even be able to add supplemental income coverage. 

4. You Are Starting a Hobby Farm

Aside from career farmers, hobby farmers serve to benefit from farm insurance as well. While you may not be fully dependent on your farm for income, you have undoubtedly poured time, money, and sweat into making it a reality.

When disaster strikes, a quality farm insurance policy can help you recoup your losses and start fresh. A comprehensive plan can also protect you from liability in the event a guest or passerby is injured by one of your animals. 

5. You Need Liability Protection in the Event of an Injury

Liability protection is a must, especially if you engage in any agritourism and therefore allow visitors onto your property. Farm insurance with comprehensive liability protection can help you cover the costs of medical bills and legal fees. When choosing a policy for this particular purpose, ensure that the one you select provides an adequate level of coverage based on the size of your farm and how many guests you typically receive. 

Finding the Perfect Policy 

There are plenty of great reasons to obtain a farm insurance policy for your property, and it is great for operations of all sizes and specialties, from calf-cow businesses to hobbyists and everyone in between. 

That said, not all farm insurance policies are created equal, so when searching for a plan for your farm, make sure to explore all add-on options, including liability and livestock protection, to properly obtain the exact coverage you need.