What is Livestock Coverage?

Your livestock is one of the largest and most important assets that your farm operation has. It’s also what drives your income and livelihood. Because of that, we take getting the right coverage in place for your cattle, poultry, hogs, horses or any other type of livestock very seriously.

The most important consideration for livestock coverage is to properly list out the numbers and values of each class of livestock that you have. Most policies use the market or cash value of the animal at the time of its death or destruction to determine the amount payable. Because the market value is constantly changing its important that we complete regular reviews of the number and values of your livestock to make sure the coverage is adequate.

Insurance companies all have different levels of livestock coverage and different causes of loss which will be covered. You will need to look at your specific livestock to determine what types of loss you will want coverage in place for. In most cases common perils such as fire, flood, collision, windstorm and other types of losses will be included in your livestock coverage. It is important to review this coverage as there are extended coverages available for causes of loss like entrapment, consequential loss (failure of the heating or ventilation) and heat Prostration. Another set of extended coverages can be considered for your livestock with would include ingestion of hardware or other type of physical injury. Further coverage can be included for loss caused by livestock birth.

It is important for a full review of the coverage that you want for your livestock. As your broker it’s our job to meet with you and review the number of animals, value of the animals and the types of loss you want your livestock covered for and we will build a policy with you to make sure we have the coverage you need in place.

Once again co-insurance is a consideration you need to be aware of when you are determining the level of coverage for your livestock, click here for an explanation of co-insurance.

Non-Owned Livestock Coverage is also a consideration for any farm operations involved in growing livestock for others. This coverage is important as you could he held responsible for the loss of livestock that you are growing for others should something happen to that livestock.

Similarly, we will need to review where your livestock is being kept. If you have others growing your livestock for you, we will need to have coverage indicated on your policy for the number and value of animals that you have at these other farms.

These coverages can seem to overlap but the reality is that they both need to be considered. Click here to read an article on the difference between livestock coverage at non-owned locations and liability coverage for non-owned livestock.

Depending on the specific types of livestock that you have there are other coverages that should be considered for things like sickness, avian flu being a good example. Your broker will work with you to determine the type of livestock you have and will outline all the available coverages for that type of livestock.