04/04/2023
6 Essential Farm and Ranch Insurance Terms You Should Know
Farm and ranch insurance is crucial for your agricultural operations. It protects not just your business, but also its many assets–from the buildings and tools to the animals and crops it depends on. To help you better understand farm and ranch insurance, let’s take a closer look at some of the jargon associated with it.
Farm Implement
Farm Implement includes equipment such as harvesters, planters, tractors and trailers. These machines provide a great deal of assistance to farmers in completing tasks like harvesting crops, planting seeds and transporting goods. They can be expensive items, so insuring them is the best way to protect your investment.
Dwelling vs. Structure
You might notice there’s a difference between the coverage for a dwelling versus a structure. This is because a dwelling is a place where someone lives, like a house or mobile home. A farm structure is a building that isn’t used for residence, like barns, corrals and silos. These structures typically have different coverage than dwellings. There’s also “other structures,” which are non farm-use structures on the same lot as your dwelling, like a detached garage.
New Farm Under Construction
This refers to a special policy that covers a farmer or rancher’s primary residence and other structures. These kinds of investments can be costly, so it’s important that they have adequate protection from any potential loss due to damage or destruction by things like fire, theft or weather events.
Animal Mortality
This is a term used for the coverage option that provides compensation if any of your show animals die unexpectedly while under your care. This type of policy will pay out a certain amount based on the value of the animal as determined by appraisers. It’s important to understand what kind of animals your policy covers—and possibly excludes—so you can make sure you’re getting proper protection for all your livestock investments.
Animal Collision
No, this doesn’t mean your animals are colliding with each other. Animal Collision is a common component of farm and ranch insurance policies which pays out if one of your animals is killed after being struck by a vehicle on the road. This ensures that you don’t have to bear full financial responsibility for any unfortunate incidents involving your livestock and vehicles. However, this does not apply if your livestock are struck by you or a vehicle you own.
Comprehensive Coverage
Comprehensive Coverage isn’t just a term used to describe your current policy. It’s actually a coverage option that provides additional protection for things like hail damage, theft, fire or vandalism that are not related to collisions with other vehicles on the road. Additionally, this helps cover costs associated with repairing damages caused by external forces outside those covered by traditional farm auto policies.
Understanding these terms helps ensure you understand your policy, your benefits and when you need to file a claim.
We’re Here to Help
Whether you’re a long-time policyholder or just starting to look for insurance options, we have team members who can help. If you have questions or concerns that you want to discuss, connect with your local OKFB agent today. If you have any insurance-specific questions, we would love to help you find the coverage that best meets your home, auto, commercial and life insurance needs.
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