Wind and snow structure damage
Wind or snow can tear coverings or damage frames; construction and covering type affect both the loss and the insurance review.
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Covered Crop Farm Insurance
You invest in a covering to give a crop better growing conditions. Insuring that structure is one decision; protecting the plants underneath is another.
The Southern Agency can compare permanent and seasonal structures, installed systems and growing plants as separate insurance interests.
Industry overview
You use greenhouses, high tunnels, or other protected structures to grow your crops, with different climate-control needs depending on the setup. A severe windstorm or power loss can threaten your structure and the plants inside.
The Southern Agency can help you review your protected-growing structures and installed systems to help you select insurance. For example, we can help you understand why building insurance may cover your greenhouse frame while leaving the growing crop inventory excluded.
Risks worth discussing
Powered climate-system failure
In heated or mechanically ventilated houses, equipment failure can expose plants to damaging temperatures. Passive tunnels have a different system profile.
Loss of a protective covering
Torn poly or broken glazing can expose plants even where repair of the cover costs less than the affected crop.
Fire in equipped structures
Where heaters, lights, and electrical controls are installed, a fire can damage the structure and plants together.
Unfinished additions
Materials and partially built structures may sit outside completed-property coverage; existing crops beside the work add another exposure.
Worker injuries among structures
Moving stock, handling inputs, maintaining equipment, and installing coverings create different duties to disclose for employees and contractors.
Coverage worth discussing
Policies to ask about. Which ones fit depends on your operations, your contracts, and the carrier’s forms.
- Commercial Property InsuranceMay help with frames and coverings; growing crops usually require separate coverage.
- Equipment Breakdown InsuranceMay help with climate-control systems; this may exclude coverage for the growing crops themselves.
- General Liability InsuranceMay help with premises injury claims; retail or public activities require specific disclosure.
- Builders Risk InsuranceMay help with construction materials or unfinished structures during projects.
- Inland Marine InsuranceMay help with portable tools or carts; crop inventory is not automatically included.
- Workers Compensation InsuranceMay provide medical or wage benefits for staff; describe specific duties like construction or chemical handling.
- Business Owners PolicyA business-owners policy can be a starting point, but eligibility depends on the specific structure and crop risks.
Situations to think through
These hypothetical examples are not agency claim results. Whether a loss is covered depends on the facts, policy terms, and applicable exclusions.
Hypothetical: Heater failure in a powered house
Hypothetical: a heater breaks on a freezing night and plants are lost. Equipment breakdown may cover an insured heater failure while excluding growing crops. Any plant coverage must expressly address the crop and cause; it is not established by the repair payment.
Hypothetical: Wind tears tunnel coverings
Hypothetical: wind tears poly coverings and bends frames. Property coverage depends on the insured structures and wind terms; coverings can have different valuation or restrictions from the frame. The exposed crop is a separate loss.
Hypothetical: Loss during greenhouse construction
Hypothetical: a storm damages an unfinished greenhouse and nearby existing plants. Builders risk may cover insured project materials or work, but existing crop inventory and permanent property may fall outside the project definition.
Before you talk to an agent
Questions to raise
- Separate seasonal covers, tunnel frames, permanent buildings, machinery, and growing crops when comparing insured property and values.
- Read wind, hail, and snow terms for each structure and covering; do not assume one greenhouse description includes every hoop house or row cover.
- For powered houses, trace an internal heater failure and an outside power outage separately through machine, crop, and income coverage.
- Set construction start and completion dates against builders-risk and permanent-policy terms, including testing and existing property.
- Review income coverage for its actual damage trigger and waiting period; crop failure or missed seasonal sales alone may not qualify.
Contract terms to check
- For leased structures or land, separate responsibility for maintenance and covering replacement from responsibility for insured storm damage; routine replacement is not necessarily a claim.
- For a new greenhouse, establish who arranges builders risk, what property it includes, and when permanent insurance begins. The construction contract does not itself bind coverage.
- Review buyer delivery or crop-supply commitments separately from insurance. A promise to supply plants or produce on a date can exceed covered business-income loss.
What the agent conversation looks like
Start with the work you do and the questions your current policies leave unanswered. Carrier options depend on your location, risk, and underwriting. Explore our approach.
- ListenReview your operations, current coverage, and past claims.
- AssessIdentify potential hazards and discuss ways to reduce risk.
- BuildDiscuss policy and carrier options, premium costs, and audits.
- SupportReview changes and help you plan ahead as your needs develop.
Questions owners ask
Are tunnels and row covers insured like permanent greenhouses?
Not necessarily. Confirm how the policy defines each structure and covering, its location, valuation, and covered perils. Insuring a permanent greenhouse does not establish coverage for seasonal tunnels or loose row covers.
What if a heating or ventilation system fails?
A form may cover insured machinery breakdown but exclude growing crops. Review plant-loss and utility-interruption terms separately, including the cause, limits, and conditions. An unheated tunnel has a different review from a powered house.
Do I need builders risk when adding a greenhouse?
Review the project before construction begins. Builders risk can address specified project property, but existing crops, defective work, testing, and the transition to permanent coverage need separate attention. Availability is not assured.
Is the crop inside the structures included in property insurance?
Do not assume so. Ask whether the actual crop is insured, under which form, at what value and stage of growth, and against which causes. A building or equipment schedule is not proof of living-inventory coverage.
Can a smaller covered-crop farm use a packaged policy?
Only if the actual operation and property meet the insurer's eligibility and terms. A BOP or other package does not automatically include tunnels, growing crops, or the consequences of climate-control failure.
What affects covered crop farm insurance cost?
Structure construction and values, coverings, powered systems, crop concentration, weather exposure, construction work, labor, and losses inform underwriting. Pricing requires the actual operation, not just its acreage.
Talk through your covered crop farm coverage
Bring your questions, current policies, and relevant contracts. An agent can review coverage terms, exclusions, and the information carriers ask for, then explain the options available to you.