Ranch Insurance Services Page

At Graybeal Group Inc., we have extensive experience in providing support to the farming community with our ranch insurance. For more than 40 years, we have taken strides to learn as much as possible about the industry and its ranch insurance needs. Based in the heart of farm country, we have agents that actually ride horses, as well as gather and brand cattle with family members who work in the industry.

Like other farming operations, ranchers are at risk for liability when transporting livestock and leasing pasture ground. They are additionally at risk for loss due to livestock mortality.

What is Ranch Insurance?

Ranch insurance is typically a customized policy as you begin with basic coverage and then add more options based on the needs of your home and ranch business. As each ranch is unique, an agent from Graybeal Group, Inc. will conduct a site visit to ensure your property is fully covered. 

Similar to traditional home insurance policies, there are also claim limits for trees, shrubs, and your lawn. Depending on the specific policy, there could be a claim limit per tree or shrub or there might be an overall limit set according to a percentage of the coverage of the home. 

An example is when your policy could cover each tree or shrub up to $250 or you could be covered up to five percent of the coverage of your home.  In this instance, if you have $100,000 of coverage for your home, that would mean the overall limit for trees, shrubs and your lawn would be $5,000. 

What Ranch Insurance Policy Covers

Ranch insurance also covers personal property directly related to the ranch operation. This portion is usually segmented into three categories.  They are:  ranch machinery and equipment, livestock, and ranch products like seed, silage, animal feed, fertilizers and pesticides. Most ranch insurance policies permit policyholders to select broad coverages over the categories or to schedule individual items. 

Whether you choose to broadly cover categories or individually schedule items, here are other coverages for a ranch insurance policy. 

Ranch Machinery and Equipment

This coverage protects the policyholder from financial loss or damage of their ranch machinery and equipment as the result of covered dangers. Nearly everything you might think of that comes under this category is covered. Combines, tractors, cotton pickers, field equipment, planters, hay rakers and other machinery are included in insurance coverage. If you use a truck for your ranch work, you could bundle a commercial auto insurance policy and add it to your overall ranch insurance package. Also normally covered are portable irrigation equipment and portable structures and fences. 

Because ranch machinery is expensive, some of it will have to be scheduled. Tractors used by ranchers can cost more than $200,000, yet they are required equipment for ranchers. Ranch insurance comes in handy if something were to happen, for instance, to the tractor, such as a severe storm damaging it. Ranchers have to protect themselves financially against the loss of an expensive piece of equipment like a tractor. Ranch insurance provides that protection. 

Livestock

Typically, the vast majority of ranch policies offer comprehensive coverage of livestock in case they are killed or injured as a result of a basic danger that is covered. Extensions are also available that cover a much broader array of perils that can occur to ranch animals.  Some extended policies cover things such as the death of animals from accidental shooting or if they are struck by a train or a vehicle. Extensions could also include attacks on livestock by wild animals, as well as flood and earthquake loss of livestock. 

Horses and equine animals serve a wide array of purposes and are therefore unique. It is wise to purchase insurance for horses that you may use for breeding, work, show or pleasure as they are investments in your ranch operation. 

Special adjusters are used for ranch insurance specifically for equine animals and they provide a list of purchasable options to cover them. Your agent can assist you in selecting the most relevant protection. 

Among the common coverage options for horses is animal mortality coverage, which covers death due to a broad number of dangers, and theft. This option also covers death due to sickness and disease. Other livestock options for horses include major medical expense, surgical expense and loss of use coverages. The purpose the horse serves the policyholder will make it clear which of the options is most suitable. 

If the horse is an essential part of the ranch operation, then it makes sense to protect that asset with insurance in the event of perils, accidents and disease. Conversely, a horse not utilized for major ranch activities would not require extensive coverage. 

Livestock insurance is similar to Farm Insurance, but it also provides protection that may cover liability risks, as well as:

• Additional Claims (animal transport/mortality)
• Accidental death of your animals because of a weather event or during transportation
• Home, belongings within, ranch ops equipment, separate structures, etc. 
• Can cover bodily injury to anyone injured on your property that is not an employee of your ranch, including legal claims and medical payments. 
• You will also have protection against non-owned property damage that is caused by the operations of your ranch.