Dealing with Dairy Farm Insurance Dilemmas
Whether you own 200 head of cattle and you seek to expand your medium sized agribusiness, or you command a veritable army of 4,000 head of cattle, and you need to reorganize your farm for tax purposes, you crave a clearer understanding of your dairy farm insurance obligations. On the one hand, you would like to protect your herd and your other agribusiness assets as much as possible. On the other hand, your farm is already “penny pinching” as is, and you prefer not to add too many new line items to your budget in the form of high premiums. This article aims to help people with this dilemma understand their basic coverage obligations. It also suggests a faster and more effective way to source quotes for dairy farm insurance.
Dairy Farm Insurance Coverages to Consider
No one likes to think about lawsuits. But if you own a dairy farm, you run many diverse liability risks. For instance, the manure from your herd could contaminate a local water supply and poison fish. Also, the herd itself poses liability risks to your staff and to visitors. Say one of your employees gets kicked while milking a cow and suffers a traumatic brain injury?
Dairy farm insurance is not only about liability, however. You also have serious assets to protect — namely your herd, your equipment, and your property. All of these assets can be threatened by various perils, including theft, vandalism, disease, floods, fire, wind, and spoiled food supply. Also, you may need dairy farm insurance to protect your business from problems stemming from the products you release into the market. Say something goes wrong with the pasteurization process. Or say salmonella contaminates your milk, butter, eggs, cheese, or other dairy products. You could be liable for damages. Even if you do “everything right” — and the problem ultimately can be traced back to someone down the distribution line from you — e.g. a supermarket that sold “expired milk” to a pregnant mother who got sick from it) — you could still theoretically be named as a defendant. Thus, you need insurance to cover your legal and court costs — even if you are completely innocent.
Identifying Best Practices for Dairy Farmers Insurance
Believe it or not, the dilemmas we’ve just spoken about merely scratch the surface of the potential exposures and dangers you face running an American agribusiness. But rather than getting “lost in the weeds,” let’s identify simple and sound strategic ideas identify your best possible policies as efficiently as possible.
First of all, you can seek out dairy farm insurance packages. These include coverages bundled together specifically for farmers. Alternatively, you can work with an agent, who can spell out in crystal clear language what policies to get, how much to pay, and how to get discounts. Third, you can talk to other dairy farmers who’ve gone through the shopping experience and get their opinions. Fourth, you can collect data about your exposures and liability needs and then work backwards again, ideally with an agent) to find policies or packages that meet both your insurance needs and your budget constraints.
For help collecting and analyzing dairy farm insurance quotes, look no further than NetQuote. Since 1989, the NetQuote team has been serving small business owners like you. Use our free quote form now to get 5 + quotes.
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