Dairy Farm Insurance

Insure Taranaki brokers specialise in advising dairy farmers on their insurance requirements

Whether you’re a:

Farm Manager
Contract Milker
Lower Order Sharemilker
50/50 Sharemilker
Farm Owner

Just like the many different roles on the farm, there are countless different insurance products and insurance companies that can help protect you. It all depends on your role, contracts you’ve signed, goals and stage in life.

Products and risks to consider will include the following:

Farm Buildings: Rotary and Herringbone Sheds, Implement Sheds, Hay Sheds, Workshops and other farm sheds. Buildings can be covered for full replacement or indemnity value or even full rebuild to the specified sqm area. Building insurance typically includes the fixed plant and machinery, yards and railings, backing gates and more.
Farm Plant and Machinery: A wide-ranging cover for all farm plant and equipment including tools. They should be covered for replacement value and can be covered at your farm or anywhere in New Zealand.
Irrigators: Not normally picked up as farm plant these items need to be insured separately
Animal Feed: Covered for indemnity or market value. If stored in the open insurance companies may only offer restricted perils cover.
Utilities: Public utilities including power poles and wires that become your responsibility should be covered by your farm insurance pack
Fences: Typically, insurance companies only offer a restricted cover and generally exclude wind or EQ damage, speak to your broker if you feel you might like to explore wider cover on fences
Livestock: Your animals are your livelihood and whilst it is not practical or affordable to insure each cow by tag number, clauses can be obtained that provides cover for any cow killed in certain events. Electrocution, impact by vehicle and smothering are common claims. A letter from your vet with the cause of death, photos and the value of the animal from your livestock agent are all that are required to claim
Livestock Transit: Cows or Calves aren’t always just on the farm, sometimes they need to be moved. Transit clauses are affordable and an important part of any programme.
Culverts and Bridges: Often overlooked, these items generally are important assets for the running of the farm and require significant capital to replace. Various types of cover are required for these items depending on the age and cost of them.

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Milk: Whether it be loss from contamination, fire, chiller breakdown, power loss or non-collection or event failure to turn on the vat, cover for additional milk penalties imposed by your dairy company can also be procured. Cover is important and should be discussed in detail with your broker. Different companies offer different cover with different excesses and limits per claim.
Milk Vat: depending on your dairy company discussions may need to be held around the importance of insuring your milk vat. Whilst Fonterra may own the vat in the suppliers' agreement they typically only pick up the costs for certain events. But if you damage the vat or even if it is stolen, the farmer is held responsible for the costs. Some insurance companies will only cover the vat automatically if it is owned by you. Otherwise, it needs to be specified separately and your responsibility imposed by contract noted.
Farming Interruption, farm gross profit: Following a serious event, damage to your infrastructure can mean you have to dry off or shift cows off to other farms to continue milking. But just because the milk cheques stop coming, your farm bills don’t. Profit insurance picks up the tab so you can continue to meet your financial obligations.
Machinery Breakdown: A specialised insurance product is available to cover the costs of breakdown from pumps and machinery. Cover can be wide-ranging for motors under a certain horsepower. Or can be specified for large or submersible pumps.
Dairy Farmers Liability: Dairy farmers face a wide range of legal liabilities and liability policies are essential parts of your insurance programme. Common products include public liability, statutory liability and employers liability. Public liability policies can protect you for dairy tanker contaminations, meat contamination and liability due to stock causing a road accident among other things.
Rural Commercial Motor: Cover to protect your tractors, diggers, bikes, trailers, calf feeders and anything else that can move under its own power or be towed. Generally covered for market value and depending on the item excesses vary by insurance company. Additional protection clauses can be added for reduced excesses on tractor tyres, ingestion of foreign objects and loss of use.
Domestic packs: Your business is also your home. We will advise you on adding quality home, contents and private vehicle covers to your farm pack. Our agreed wordings with insurance companies means we access some of the widest domestic products in the entire market.