You can protect high-value farm animals against a loss of breeding ability with insurance. High-premium insurance, that is.
“There are only a limited number of companies that will insure infertility, basically only bulls,” Kevin Charleston, president of Specialty Risk Insurance in Carthage, Mo. told Ozarks Farm & Neighbor. “And it’s fairly expensive, but some guys do buy that coverage for a bull in case he injures himself.”
Charleston said if there’s a lot of value in the bull – many people peg that at a minimum of $5,000 – it’s worth it to them.
“It just really has started to become more widespread than it used to be,” he said. “People didn’t use to ever insure, but as the price of the cattle has gone up they’ve started to look at that option.”
Many producers have insurance on their overall farm package, and Charleston said that interest is remaining pretty static.
“As the values have gone up over the past two to three years, they have more money involved,” he said. “You see the lenders apply more pressure to protect those investments. Not a huge push, but people do pay more attention now because of the value.”
There are two types of coverage on livestock. The standard “Named Peril” coverage is called that because the reasons the insured can collect are identified in the policy – fire, lightning, windstorm, blizzard, drowning, flood, vandalism and so forth.
“This coverage is best suited for production livestock operations (feedlot, pasture, dairy, swine, poultry, etc.) where a veterinary exam of each covered animal is not required, but coverage for illness, sickness, and disease is also excluded,” according to Michael Elrod, vice president of Apex Insurance Consultants of Arkadelphia, Ark.
He told OFN a swine or poultry policy can be amended to cover the death of covered animals caused by a power interruption or mechanical breakdown, provided protective safeguard requirements like alarms and generators are met.
The other type of policy, “Broad Peril,” will cover the death of a covered animal caused by a covered accident, injury, sickness, or disease resulting from any non-excluded peril.
Since these are higher value animals, a veterinary exam is required to list an animal on the policy. For horses, owners can opt for Major Medical Expense and Loss of Use coverage options.
“Theft is covered under both policy types, but there must be visible signs of a theft for coverage to apply. So, mysterious disappearance or shortage upon taking inventory is not covered by either policy type,” Elrod said.
Premiums for either policy type will depend on the type of livestock covered, deductible selection, limits of insurance, coverage options selected and so forth,
“Obviously, covering an animal with a ‘Broad Peril’ policy is much more expensive than covering an animal with a ‘Named Peril’ policy,” Elrod said. “This is only a very general description of Livestock Mortality Insurance. There are specialized livestock insurance policies available to cover nearly every major livestock industry – cattle, swine, poultry, equine, service animal, livestock transit, auction market, etc. Before making any insurance decisions, you should always rely on a knowledgeable livestock insurance agent to review your livestock insurance needs and obtain the necessary coverage details.”
Elrod stressed that all policies needed to be examined carefully to determine suitability for needs and to identify any exclusions, limitations, or any other terms and conditions that may specifically affect coverage.
“In the event of a conflict, the terms and conditions of the policy prevail,” he said.
