Farm Insurance

What state are you in? Because here in Indiana farm bureau considers deer as livestock for insurance and welcomes them.

Having lived on the Gulf Coast all my life and experienced the way insurance companies act I feel your frustration. They will collect premiums here for years for wind damage but when we have a hurricane the insurance goes through the roof each time eventhough their profits were at all time highs. Next they want to cancel the home owners. The only way to fight them is cancel all policies with them when they want to cancel one. They were dumb enough to suggest the people here could keep their life and auto policies but not home owners policies. As far as I am concerned they can supply all my insurance needs or none!

Steve, Nate is correct. If your state considers your deer livestock they should have to insure them. Or at the very least it should not cause you to be canceled. I think this would be the kind of case that NADEFA should stand up and defend for the industry. Some things have to be fought, and this sounds like one of those.

1.They are dismissing the fact that what you raise is indeed livestock, as classified by the state you live in.

2. They are going with the assumption that our deer are infected with disease.

3. They have a double standard as to the effects of a cow or a horse being lose versus a deer.

I would fight this to set a precedence. Then I would drop their a$$es and find a new company to deal with. But that is just me

Steve;



Your agent is wrong or your state has different regulations. I just switched to

Farm Bureau Ins, as our local agent has been after me since I stqrted raising

deer in 2005. He fully knew I was raising deer when he insured me and has some

better rates than previous insurer. I can even buy insurance for my deer, If I

wanted to, but didn't think it was needed.



Dennis Pell



Fremont,Mi

We lost a farrowing house in 1984 to a fire and left dozens of pregnant sows out in the January cold to have their pigs. Farm Bureau paid the claim and dropped us like a sack of taters. Between here and KCMO along I-70 there was a brand-new machine shed that was crumpled to the dirt by a tornado. Farm Bureau didn't pay the claim and then dropped the client. They even put a large ad-sized sign on the road proclaiming their frustration. On the other hand, Farm Bureau has been instrumental with our state goverment in aiding the farmer, even we that operate CAFO's (captive animal feeding operations) so it seems that they are doing exactly what my health insurance provider is doing-picking and choosing what they want to do and when they want to do it.

Steve, I completely feel your frustration. I am an insurance agent, and I deal directly with underwriters on a regular basis over STUPID issues. These are usually rules that are handed down by some paper pushing board, that has no idea of what the world does outside of that office.



Even though I am an insurance agent, I received the best insurance rate on my farm and livestock from Farm Family Insurance Company. (they are considered livestock by my insurance agent and even classifies DEER as the livestock on the policy) I looked on their website and they do not have Florida listed as a state of interest. Contact your state Insurance Commission to get referrals. Also contact your states deer farming or exotic farming association to get referred somewhere. Any local zoo or game ranch may be helpful.



I must also point out that this could be a blessing in disguise. Try to look at it this way and it may make the frustration better. Make it a point to find better insurance for the same price or the same insurance for a better price. Smack them in the face with it.



Good Luck!

Been down that road as well. I had State Farm Insurance for 20 years until I was cancelled for having deer.



My agent is a life long family friend and she has always known I had deer. I had built a handling facility and wanted to get it insured. She came right out and took pictures so that they could determine the cost of insurance for us. As luck (or bad luck) would have it, I had bottle fawns in the facility at the time and one of them showed up in a picture. From the picture of that fawn I was cancelled. The only reason I was given was that State Farm doesn't know anything about deer and therefore will not insure them or the farm they are being raised on.



My Agent friend felt terrible about this, I told her not to worry about it as I would simply go across the street and get my insurance from another local Insurance Agent. As simple as that, that is just what I did and we actually saved money doing it. The interesting part of this is, my Agents two sons, who are best friends of mine also both work for State Farm. One is a Field Agent who oversees all of the agents in the Northern half of the State, the other is a very successful Agent in another local town. This even gets more bizarre, I have deer hunted with these two guys and their families since we were kids. We all get together every year for our annual deer season, not only those two buddies but there are a couple of other State Farm Agents, plus the Agent from the company that I now get my insurance through. . I try and get things fired up once in a while in our conversations at deer camp, but for the most part they don't want anything do with that conversation. I feel bad for these Agents that have to tell their customers and good friends that they can no longer insure them because of reasons ??????



One of these State Farm Agents did tell me that I am not alone, he said they cannot insure a farm that has a hog confinement on it either. Wow!!

Just had our homeowners canceled by Ohio Fair Plan insurance because....we have a deer farm. For that specific reason.

this is what happens when our society has been removed 2 or more generations from "the farm", they have no clue what we do, if it's different it must be dangerous or the insurance companys think if only a few are doing it why should we not insure it because even if we insure all the deer farms there is not enough of them to reclaim any losses, and the few (in relative terms) can not make enough noise to get noticed and do not matter to them just the almighty dollar. Could Nadefa, if everyone belonged to it have enough numbers to become an insurance underwriter???

I think it has more to do with them not wanting to promote preserve hunts. If hunters are hunting in preserves, then they are not hunting wild deer. So they think that the wild population is going to increase and then deer/car colisions will increase. I may be way off base,But it makes sense to me anyway.