Picture this, it is 1 am and you are abruptly woken up to heavy rain and blowing wind. That is when you hear the dreaded sound no farmer wants—hail. What will the “white combine” mean for your crops?
Hailstorms can pop up at any given time in our region and damage, even destroy, a crop in minutes and affect your bottom line. Insuring your crop early in the year does not cost you any more money. Why not get your operation covered as soon as the crop is up?
AgCountry insurance specialists are trained and ready to help you insure your crops so when severe storms hit your farm, you are protected. We have various companies we can write hail coverage with and there are several different policy types to cover all ranges of losses. We have tools to help analyze your farm and customize a policy for you. For those farmers who are concerned about a total wipeout, maybe a 30% deductible is the policy for them. Someone down the road might prefer a basic policy where there is no deductible—paying 100% at 90% loss.
Some of the more popular policies in the area are as follows:
- Basic: 0% deductible and pays 100% at 90%
- DDA: 10% deductible that starts paying full coverage at 25% and pays 100% at 90%
- DDC: 30% deductible that starts paying full coverage at 55% and pays 100% at 90%
- Comp 2-10: 10% deductible when the damage is more than 10%. Take the loss by 2 and pays 100% at 60%
- Comp 2-15: 15% deductible when the damage is more than 15%. Take the loss by 2 and pays 100% at 65%
- Comp 3-10: 10% deductible when the damage is more than 10%. Take the loss by 3 and pays 100% at 45%
- Comp 3-15: 15% deductible when the damage is more than 15%. Take the loss by 3 and pays 100% at 50%
- Comp 2+: Basic policy from 1%-10% loss when damage is more than 5%. Take the loss by 2 and pays 100% at 55%
- Comp 2: 5% deductible when damage is more than 5%. Take the loss by 2 and pays 100% at 55%
As you can see from the options listed above, there is hail insurance to suit all operations. Your local insurance specialist can work with you to look at your budget and make a recommendation on how much coverage you need. You can customize your policy type and insurance per acre to fit exactly what you would like. Remember, all crops and acres do not have to be insured. One of the great features of hail coverage is your ability to cover a portion of your acres. Also, in most instances acres that are uninsurable under multi-peril can be covered by hail insurance.
By having a hail policy this year, the carry-over coverage most companies offer would give you hail protection for an early hailstorm the following crop year (only for crops insured this year). Please note, the carry-over expiration dates vary by company.
In addition to hail damage, most hail insurance policies also cover fire and lightning, a portion of fire department charges, vandalism, smoke (not including smog), theft, and overturn of grain up to 100 miles from being transported to the first place of storage. That is some nice wiggle room just in case you take the corner too sharp.
Although multi-peril crop insurance covers hail damage, enterprise units combine all units of that crop into one guarantee, so hail insurance is a way to protect each field on its own and ensure you are getting paid when only part of your farm is hit. We recommend producers with enterprise look at putting some type of hail coverage on.
Most companies only require a two-hour notice to bind hail coverage. If your local news station is forecasting severe weather, please do not wait until the last minute to contact your insurance specialist.
Our job is to help you mitigate your risk, allow you to sleep more soundly in the summer months, and not let a few minutes affect that bottom line. Visit or call your local AgCountry office today to find a policy that fits your needs.
This article was written by Jean Ternes, Sue Pratt, and Kristin Hansen of Ward County Crop Insurance
