Is Your Farm Properly Insured?

Insurance folder_generic

Advertisement

When you throw agritourism into the mix, farms aren’t just farms anymore. They’re more like amusement parks, and a farm that has potentially thousands of visitors in a year will need a much different insurance policy than a farm that’s not open to the public.

Eric Toftegaard, account executive, commercial lines, for New York-based Tompkins Insurance, says it’s important for growers to understand the risks they face when opening their farms to the public. “With agritourism, you’re putting people who are not used to being around farms on your farm. Therefore, you get kids who are excited and parents who are not often used to having 10 acres for their kids to run on,” he says. “You get the normal stuff — slips and falls, which are pretty common.”
However, he adds, a lot of farms tend to “self insure” and not carry as high a limit as they should. “You’re taking two completely polar opposite things — an amusement park, which has all sorts of safety features, procedures, medical staffs and waivers, and you’re crossing that with a farm, which typically has nobody on it, and has a lot of machinery that is big, bulky, and dangerous,” he says. It’s paramount that growers think about how much they’re worth, the risks involved in agritourism, and how much liability they might need in the event of an accident.

One of the biggest mistakes Toftegaard says he sees growers make in regard to their insurance policies is not properly assessing what they have. A farm that has animatronics, jumping pillows, rat wheels, and other kinds of games and rides is going to need a much different policy than a standard farm, for example.
On top of that, Toftegaard says agritourism is uncharted water for a lot of insurance companies. “It hasn’t been around for a long time, and there’s not a lot of data or research that they can go by, because it’s so new,” he says.

The best thing agritourism operators can do to make sure they’re protected, says Toftegaard, is sit down with a broker or agent who really understands the business, the culture of the people in the area, the target market for customers, and also understands how to help with more than just insurance. “You need someone who can tell you what information you should get if somebody falls and gets hurt — someone who knows how to create procedures and can offer advice,” he says. “You really need to look for somebody who has familiarity with the industry who will give you more than just a price and a rundown of the coverage.”

Top Articles
Have a Plan For Climate Change? Why Fruit Growers Need To Act Now

You also should be careful not to sell yourself short, he says. “The more things you’re doing — offering cooking on the premises, for example — that all comes with more premiums,” he says. “When you add the pumpkin cannons and jumping pillows and bring 25,000 people on your property, you’re no longer just a farm.”

0