FARM INSURANCE · SOUTHSIDE VIRGINIA AND NORTHERN NORTH CAROLINA
Farm insurance for Southside Virginia and the counties across the line.
Cattle and hay, tobacco and row crops, poultry houses, timber and hunting land, the hobby farm with six goats. A farm is a home, a business and a fleet at once, and the policy has to know which is which.
THE FIRST THING TO KNOW
A farm policy is three policies that agree with each other.
The house is a homeowners policy. The barns, the equipment and the animals are property coverage of a kind a homeowners policy does not carry. The liability, for the visitor kicked by a horse, the bull through the fence onto the road, the hay wagon at the school field trip, is farm liability, and it is different from both homeowners and general liability.
A farm package writes all of it on one policy so the pieces fit. The line between a homeowners policy with a farm endorsement and a real farm policy is mostly a question of scale, and it is the first thing we will ask about.
WHAT IT COVERS
Four parts of a farm package.
The house and the outbuildings
The dwelling, and then the barns, sheds, grain bins, poultry houses and the pack house, each scheduled with its own value.
Machinery and equipment
Tractors, balers, sprayers, irrigation, the skid steer. Scheduled by item or on a blanket limit, on the farm and on the road between fields.
Livestock
Cattle, horses, goats, poultry. Death from named causes, and options for the animal that ends up on the highway.
Farm liability
Injury and property damage arising from the operation: the visitor, the neighbor's fence, the product sold at the stand, the drift from the sprayer.
Farm auto and farm use tags are their own question. A truck with farm tags still needs the right policy for how it is actually used, and hauling for somebody else changes the answer.
WHAT CHANGES THE ANSWER
Six things that move a farm from one kind of policy to another.
Selling to the public
A farm stand, pick your own, a wedding barn, a pumpkin patch or a hunting lease brings the public onto the place and needs liability written for it.
Employees
Farm labor rules for workers' compensation differ from other businesses in both states, and the exemptions are narrow. Ask before the first hire.
Contract growing
Poultry and hog houses grown under contract have requirements in the contract itself. Bring it.
Chemicals and drift
Spray drift onto a neighbor's crop is a farm liability claim, and pollution exclusions vary. Worth reading before spring.
Timber and hunting land
Land with no house on it still has liability, and a hunting lease multiplies it. Landowner liability policies are written for exactly this.
Equipment on the road
A tractor on Route 47 between fields is covered by the farm policy in most cases, but the trailer of hay behind a pickup is an auto question.
WHO WE WRITE IT FOR
Who we write it for
● Cattle and hay operations
● Tobacco, soybeans, corn and wheat
● Poultry houses, including contract growers
● Horse farms and boarding
● Timber and hunting land, with or without a lease
● Hobby farms with a few animals and a barn
● Farm stands, pick your own and agritourism
Farm, or homeowners with a farm endorsement?
A few acres, a handful of animals and no income is usually a homeowners policy with a farm endorsement. Income from the land, hired help, contract growing or the public on the property is a farm policy. Plenty of places around here are somewhere in between, which is why it is a conversation and not a form.
THE STATE LINE
Agritourism and the public on your land
Virginia
Virginia has an agritourism liability statute that limits claims for the inherent risks of a farm visit, provided the required warning sign is posted and the operator is not negligent. It narrows some claims. It does not replace liability coverage, and it does not cover the wagon that was not maintained.
North Carolina
North Carolina has a similar agritourism statute with its own sign wording. The same limits apply: it helps with the inherent risks and does nothing for negligence, which is what most claims allege.
Both statutes set specific sign wording and conditions. Confirm the current text with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services or the North Carolina Department of Agriculture before opening to the public.
QUESTIONS WE GET
Before you call
Is my farm covered under my homeowners policy?
The house is. The barn may be, up to the other structures limit. The animals, the equipment and the liability from farming usually are not, and income from the land is where most homeowners policies stop.
What about farm use tags?
Tags are a DMV question. Insurance is about how the truck is used. A farm use truck that also hauls for a neighbor or goes to town every day needs the policy to know that.
I lease my land for hunting. Am I covered?
The hunters' club may carry a policy that names you, and you may still want your own landowner liability. Read the lease. If it is a handshake, that is the first thing to fix.
Is my tractor covered on the road?
Between your own fields, usually, under the farm policy. Longer trips, custom work for others or a trailer behind a pickup can move it. Tell us the route.
Can I add a barn or a tractor through the form?
Call the office. Scheduling a building or a machine is a change in coverage, and coverage is not bound through the form or by email until somebody here has confirmed it.
Changing your coverage
For adding or deleting coverage, please call the office during business hours. Coverage is not bound through sending a request by email or using the contact form without explicit confirmation from an authorized agent or carrier.