Cow Attack Insurance

Help Support CattleToday:

Moooooo

Active member
Joined
May 4, 2019
Messages
31
Reaction score
8
I have about 8 cattle on my land for tax purposes. They belong to a tenant. An insurer says I need liability insurance for the cattle before I can get homeowners insurance. Is there a company that sells this kind of coverage?
 
If you do not own the cattle, the owner needs liability insurance on them. you may need insurance in case they get out and cause damage else where. At least here, the landlord is still responsible for fences unless a contract between landlord and tenant is in force.
 
You can't really do that in Florida unless you want to subsidize tenants instead of making money from them.
 
Ask about an umbrella liability policy. I believe an umbrella policy will cover liability above the limits on homeowner policies and auto policies and not limited to a specific location or event. That's why it is call an umbrella. Cost probably around $300/year per million of coverage.

Some people take minimum liability limits on auto and home. If injuries as determined by a jury exceeds your limits, then they can go after your farm and such. I suspect the law and costs vary by state. Ask your insurance person.
 
Florida is different. I'm getting estimates of up to $9000 on one house.
 
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll check. Things are so bad here, State Farm will not insure my...farm.
 
You might just be able to add FCPL (Farmers Comprehensive Personal Liability) to existing home insurance policy. That way you don't have to buy a full fledged farm insurance policy just to cover the cattle on your place. This does depend on the insurance company you currently have.
 
They are going to get back to me.

Florida is really something. USAA just told me they could insure me if it weren't hurricane season. That was a new one on me. Apparently if your insurance renews during that half of the year, it can cause you problems. I'm going to see what I can do about changing my renewal date to December.

The sad thing is that I live in a part of the state that doesn't get sustained hurricane-force winds.
 
I have about 8 cattle on my land for tax purposes. They belong to a tenant. An insurer says I need liability insurance for the cattle before I can get homeowners insurance. Is there a company that sells this kind of coverage?
Yes. I might can, depending on what state you are in. If not, I can point you to someone in your state. You can do both livestock liability and homeowners in just one estate policy. No need for 2 policies. But if those aren't your cows, you need to make whoever owns them to make you an additional insured on their policy and give you a COI.
 
@Moooooo ,,, have you PM'ed @Warren Allison for some names of insurers? Just wondering what all he had to offer. We have ours in Va through one of 2 companies that carry most of the farms.... Farm Bureau (which does not look like a possibility for you) and Rockingham Insurance... I am sure there are others here.
Have an umbrella policy with 1 mil liability.... had to have it to satisfy landowner's insurance requirements.
 
Farm Bureau finally returned my call after several days.

Farm Bureau does not insure farms in Florida.
You want to stay away from captive agencies anyway. You get a better deal with carriers written through independent agents and brokers. You can request quotes direct with this link. Or, send it to an independent agent and get him to write it, It costs no more to go through an agent than it does direct with an insurer, and if you ever have a claim, you will wish you had an agent. https://www.eqgroup.com/farm-ranch-estate-insurance/
 
I appreciate the help, but I have called everyone in the universe. Today I talked to a guy who does nothing but insure farms, and he said I have to have horses plus a horse barn in order to get insurance through his carriers. Cattle are dealbreakers. Even my 8 scrawny tax-dodge cattle.

Looks like I'm stuck with my existing insurer. Not the end of the world, but I had to see if I could do better.

There is a real crisis in Florida. Desperate insurance companies seem to be trying to screw people who live in the middle of the state, where hurricane damage is low, in order to pay for the huge losses they incurred from storms that wiped out homes near the coasts. Where I am, we have never gotten hurricane-force winds. We get some damage, but it's not very bad. I lived in Coral Gables during Andrew, so I know what a real hurricane looks like.

My insurance went up around 70% this year, but I know a guy whose rate quadrupled.

I never thought cattle would be a problem. This is a rural county, after all. I'm going to try to find a new tax dodge. My understanding is that I can pretend to be a forest conservationist in order to cover most of my property.
 
Top