Harvest is here. The most exciting & insane time – of the farming year. You’ve got sprayers spraying, swathers swathing, combines combining, truckers trucking and augers augering. #Poetic #SixGeeseALaying #StopEatingMyCrops. You’ve got so many moving machines, people going in a million directions and you’re fighting a timeline before things freeze or mother nature decides to bring a heavy rain or an early snowfall. You have to work around the clock to capitalize on the nicer weather. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the farming world – which is ironic since they feed us all.

With all this commotion of people and moving equipment, plus working day and night; mistakes can be made. For example: You accidentally back the combine into your fuel truck parked behind you. You may take a corner too tight and hit a nearby power pole. You spray the wrong field. You spray during a windy day and accidentally overspray and kill your neighbours crop. There are so many things that “could” go wrong. That is why you carry Comprehensive Farm Liability. You never know what may happen, and even though you do not intend to do any damage; being sleep deprived or just zoned out, you can be negligent and cause a mistake.

Comprehensive Farm Liability is designed to protect yourself against such negligence. Most farm policies will automatically include $1 million liability on your policy (Which, of course, can be increased if required). You will likely need to declare the amount of acres your farm (Rent & Own) as this liability will extend to your entire farm operation. If you decide to do some custom work for other farmers, you may need to look into what limit your insurance carrier allows for this as that now becomes a commercial operation and may need to be reviewed. A little bit of work is usually included (as a neighbourly gesture) by most companies. However, if you plan on doing any custom work – make sure you contact us to make sure your insurance carrier is on board with the custom work, as this is a material change in operation and they need to be notified. 

If you are a landowner, but have wound down your farm operation, it is still important to carry Comprehensive Farm Liability. How the courts determine negligence is open to interpretation. So if someone trespasses on your land (even if it is marked) and are injured on your land. You may be found liable for injury or damage to that person based on the arguments in court. For example, a snowmobiler rides onto your property during the winter. They are zipping through the field and collide into an old set of heavy harrows that have been buried in the snow or an unmarked slough/dugout. The harrows and dugout were not flagged and therefore are the landowners responsibility. He may be found negligent and sued for damages.

This seems like an unfair situation affecting the farmer. However, scenarios that can be out of the farmers control, may still find their way into his responsibility. Again, this is why you carry Comprehensive Farm Liability to protect yourself against things that are out of your control. 

We would love to review this coverage with you and if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us. We are in your corner and want to serve you in any way we can. Our motto is “Serving our clients, Serving our community,” for a reason. We want to make sure you have a safe, secure and amazing harvest! Thanks for reading!