Fields, Fences and Forms: A Guide to Farm Insurance

March 13, 2026
The Research Academy

ag risk management, agribusiness insurance, agricultural exposures, agricultural insurance, Alliance education, barns and outbuildings coverage, farm coverage gaps, farm insurance, farm liability insurance, farm operations risk, farm policy forms, farm property coverage, farm risk management, farm structures insurance, farm underwriting, FP 00 12, FP 00 14, insurance for agricultural operations, MEGA Seminar, pollution liability agriculture, rural property insurance

Casey Roberts, ACSR, AFIS, CIC, PLIC, CAIP

Principal and founder of Laurus Insurance Consulting, specializing in continuing education, sales coaching, sales management, and expert witness work. With 34 years in retail insurance and over 25 years of CE teaching, he brings deep industry expertise. He holds the CIC, ACSR, and AFIS designations and has served in leadership roles with the IIABCal, the AFIS board, his state’s agribusiness insurance committee, and the California Department of Insurance’s Curriculum Board.

A farmer’s garage burns down. He calls his insurance agent that morning to report the loss. The agent makes the initial first notice of loss to the insurer and diaries a follow-up in a few days. When following up he hears this from the adjuster: “Well, John, we might have a problem here. It looks like your farmer was storing hay and his tractor in the garage and it wasn’t listed properly on the policy. We think we are going to decline his claim.” This challenge and others like it are the kinds of experiences I’ve faced in insuring farm/ag risks.

I’ve always enjoyed insuring farm/ag risks ever since I became a licensed agent. I have taught nationally on most farm coverage topics, both property and liability centric, for more than thirty (30) years. It is fascinating to me because it often combines the challenges of managing personal insurance risks with a business exposure – often all on the same premises.

In addition, the multiple exposures that come with many farm/ag risks are as varied as the farmers themselves. Here are just a few of the challenges you might find on a farm today:

- - - Wedding facilities;
    - Hunting operations;
    - U-Pick operations;
    - Custom farming exposures;
    - Horses;
    - Aquaculture;
    - Retail operations; and
    - Pollution exposures of all sorts.

Frankly, the list is almost endless. Don’t believe me? Ask your farm underwriter and prepare to be amazed.

Now we won’t have time to address most of the foregoing. But we will have time to give you a broad-brush approach to understanding how to insure farms, the potholes that might trip one up, as well as the exceptions of which one should be aware when insuring these diverse operations.

Now let’s get back to the burned garage and our claims dilemma.

Farms often have buildings which may look like one thing but actually function as another. Take our burned garage as one simple example.

When I said “garage” you probably thought like most folks: “Yep, there it is, a building with a big garage door on it designed to store three vehicles”. That’s what I hoped you were thinking when I said garage. But with the Farm Property coverage forms, we focus on the “use” of the building, not just its design or what we “think” the insured is using it for.

There are at least two separate coverage forms we should consider when trying to find coverage for our now destroyed “garage”:

- FP 00 12 04 16, Farm Property – Farm Dwellings, Appurtenant Structures and Household Personal Property Coverage Form; and
- FP 00 14 04 16, Farm Property – Barns, Outbuildings and Other Farm Structures Coverage Form.

The FP 00 12 functions similarly to an HO-3 in providing coverage for the farm dwelling, appurtenant structures, household personal property and loss of use. While there are similarities, they are not exactly the same.

When it comes to Appurtenant Structures – such as the garage in question – there is one interesting phrase used in the form that gives us pause. Under Coverage B (Other Private Structures Appurtenant to Dwellings) there is language that states that no coverage applies to “structures (other than private garages) that you use principally for farming purposes”.

We could have insured the “garage” in question using the FP 00 14 form and specifically listed it as a covered “farm building or structure” and thereby avoided the pending dispute.

Yes, we can argue (and if you know me at all you know that I would) that the “garage” in question is a “private garage” and as such should have coverage. On the other hand, while we sort out this potential mess, our insured is the hapless person stuck in the middle.

Come join us for the discussion of this and other thorny issues as we explore the multiple and varied coverage forms used to insure our farms.